Satellite Constellations Exceed the Limits of Acceptable Brightness Established by the IAU
2025/06/30 by Anthony Mallama, Richard E. Cole, Mallama, Anthony +1 · 8 voices · 2 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Brightness #Constellation #Impact of Light on Environment and Health #Limit (mathematics) #Magnitude (astronomy) #Night sky #Photocathodes and Microchannel Plates #Satellite #Sky brightness #Space exploration and regulation #Spacecraft #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2507.00107
published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University)
openalex publication_date 2025/06/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract
Brightness statistics for satellites of the Starlink, BlueBird, Qianfan, Guowang and OneWeb constellations are reported. The means and standard deviations are compared to acceptable limits set by the International Astronomical Union's Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky From Satellite Constellations Interference. Nearly all these spacecraft exceed the magnitude 7+ brightness limit pertaining to interference with professional research. Most also exceed the magnitude 6 reference where they distract from aesthetic appreciation of the night sky.
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- The major large satellite constellations are still too bright, reports a new paper. arxiv.org/abs/2507.00107 Almost all Starlink, BlueBird, Qianfan, Guowang, and OneWeb satellites impact astronomy, an [bsky, 23 points, 0 comments]
- in the #arXiv Satellite Constellations Exceed the Limits of Acceptable Brightness Established by the IAU by Anthony Mallama and Richard E. Cole arxiv.org/abs/2507.00107 🧪🔭 [bsky, 23 points, 0 comments]
- Observational Astronomy is about to suffer death by a (few) thousand Satellites. A new paper by Mallama & Cole shows that everyone but OneWeb greatly exceeds the satellite brightness limits establishe [bsky, 10 points, 2 comments]
- Link to the paper: Anthony Mallama and Richard E. Cole (2025) arxiv.org/abs/2507.00107 [bsky, 9 points, 1 comments]
- Constellation satellites brightnesses are exceeding the CPS limit, and often the visual limit. Starlinks *have* gotten dimmer per unit area... but also bigger ... arxiv.org/abs/2507.00107 [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
- Satellite Constellations Exceed the Limits of Acceptable Brightness Established by the IAU arxiv.org/abs/2507.00107 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- They do. The measure are here Same for the brightness. It is still an issue arxiv.org/abs/2507.00107 [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]
- in the # arXiv Satellite Constellations Exceed the Limits of Acceptable Brightness Established by the IAU by Anthony Mallama and Richard E. Cole https:// arxiv.org/abs/2507.00107 # Astronomy # NightSk [mastodon, 0 points, 0 comments]
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