The FAS are pleased to present a Megaconstellation Webinar across two days.

The 7th & 8th of May 2022

Scroll down to the end for registration.

Images L to R:-
Time-lapse image of a Starlink satellite cluster passing through a telescope’s FOV at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile in November 2019. Credit: CTIO, NOIRLab, NSF, AURA, and DECam DELVE Survey.
Dr Paul Daniels FRAS; LEO Satellites.
Vox- SpaceX’s starlink satellites stream across the sky in Southern Brazil. They are almost as bright as the meteor captured in the upper right of the shot. Courtesy of Egon Filter

Over the past two or three years there have been several conferences between professional astronomers, space scientists and satellite operators discussing ways to mitigate the effects of the growing number of satellites placed in Low Earth Orbit on the science of astronomy, on access to and the sustainable use of space and on the impact of the industry on our terrestrial and space environment.

There was a call at the 2021 UNOOSA Dark & Quiet Skies conference for the challenges being posed by satellite megaconstellations to be communicated to those early in their astronomical career as they will become a major complicating factor in how they pursue their future research.

Amateur astronomers are often active contributors to professional research projects and amateur astronomy is also very often the route by which young, aspiring astronomers make the leap into professional astronomy. There is also a large number of advanced amateur astronomers around the globe. For these reasons the FAS, which supports the UK’s amateur astronomical societies, is organising a free, two-day, international webinar so that satellite operators and professional astronomers engaged in those challenges can explain them to attendees and answer their questions.

Many amateurs have a day-job during the week and undergraduate and postgraduate students have lectures/research to attend so, in order to accommodate them, the days reserved for this webinar are Saturday, 7th May and Sunday, 8th May 2022.

The programme below lists the talks for the two days of the webinar. The structure is broadly (Day 1) to introduce the concept of megaconstellations, discuss the challenges they pose both in orbit and on Earth, the cultural and legal issues and then (Day 2) to discuss how astronomy is affected, possible mitigations and the way forward.

The level of the talks will be aimed at the range of interested amateur up to early-postdoctoral level.
The webinar is open to everyone, though please note that there is a limit of 500 places. Registration for this event is FREE. The FAS website will always contain the most up-to-date programme and registration is via Zoom; the link can be found on this web page.

Scroll down to the end for registration.

Download a copy of the Programme here

Daily Programme of 08th May22

FAS-Megaconstellation-Webinar-Draft-Programme-0205-pg1

Webinar_Day2-update

Download a copy of the Programme here

Registration

Registration for this free webinar is by Zoom. An email will be returned with the login details

Registration is for both days, so only one Zoom login is required. Clicking below opens a new window.

You do not need a Zoom account to register.