INFLATION OF SATELLITES
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
.
.Astronomy
versus astronautics?
Stars versus satellites!
.
Probably if I were a time traveler I would send the following message:
.
From the future:
I saw pieces of clear sky
among the satellites!
.
With all due respect, sometimes good intentions cause unwanted problems.
Regarding the problem with which observational astronomy has already begun to face,
that of the large number of artificial satellites (undeniably useful for improving people's
lives, but disturbing the vision of the starry sky), I have translated some passages from an
excellent tragicomic essay, entitled ‘Tin Stars’ - a new alarm signal on behalf of sky
lovers and a new invitation to find solutions favorable to all.
This was published in Romanian by the coordinator of the Admiral Vasile Urseanu
Bucharest Municipal Observatory, Adrian Bruno Sonka, on his blog on March 14, 2023:
‘Good I found you high-speed internet, accessible from anywhere, if people pay the
subscription, and goodbye peaceful and free sky. (…)
It's normal, it's everyone's right to have the internet, just as it's everyone's right to go
outside at night and look at the stars.
It is everyone's right to throw garbage into the river, just as it is everyone's right to sit and
watch a river full of garbage.
Astronomers around the world are currently worried about the large number of satellites
proposed for launch because all these satellites will be seen in the sky, cross the images
taken by telescopes and spoil astronomical data that can be essential for the future of
mankind. (…)
It's gotten into the funny situation where the people who built the super-telescopes are
bothered by the people who launch tens of thousands of satellites, and in the middle are
the people who funded the first ones and allowed the others to launch satellites.
In years and years we will go outside at night to look at a starry sky with tin.’ (Adrian
Sonka)
#poetry