Photometric Characterization and Trajectory Accuracy of Starlink Satellites: Implications for Ground-Based Astronomical Surveys. (arXiv:2208.03226v1 [astro-ph.EP])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Halferty_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">Grace Halferty</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Reddy_V/0/1/0/all/0/1">Vishnu Reddy</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Campbell_T/0/1/0/all/0/1">Tanner Campbell</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Battle_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Adam Battle</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Furfaro_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Roberto Furfaro</a>

Starlink is a low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation operated by Space
Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) which aims to provide global satellite
internet access. Thus far, most photometric observations of Starlink satellites
have primarily been from citizen scientists’ visual observations without using
quantitative detectors. This paper aims to characterize Starlink satellites and
investigate the impact of mega constellations on ground-based astronomy,
considering both the observed magnitude and two-line element (TLE) residuals.
We collected 353 observations of 61 different Starlink satellites over a
16-month period and we found an average GAIA G magnitude of 5.5 +/- 0.13 with a
standard deviation of 1.12. The average magnitude of V1.0 (pre-VisorSat)
Starlinks was 5.1 +/- 0.13 with a standard deviation of 1.13. SpaceX briefly
used a low-albedo coating on a Starlink satellite called DarkSat to test light
pollution mitigation technologies. The brightness of DarkSat was found to be
7.3 +/- 0.13 with a standard deviation of 0.78, or 7.6 times fainter than V1.0
Starlinks. This concept was later abandoned due to thermal control issues and
sun visors were used in future models called VisorSats. The brightness of
VisorSats was found to be 6.0 +/- 0.13 with a standard deviation of 0.79, or
2.3 times fainter than V1.0 Starlinks. Over the span of the observations, we
found that TLEs were accurate to within an average of 0.12 degrees in right
ascension and -0.08 degrees in declination. The error is predominantly
along-track, corresponding to a 0.3 second time error between the observed and
TLE trajectories. Our observations show that a time difference of 0.3 +/- 0.28
seconds is viable for a proposed 10 second shutter closure time to avoid
Starlinks in images.

Starlink is a low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation operated by Space
Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) which aims to provide global satellite
internet access. Thus far, most photometric observations of Starlink satellites
have primarily been from citizen scientists’ visual observations without using
quantitative detectors. This paper aims to characterize Starlink satellites and
investigate the impact of mega constellations on ground-based astronomy,
considering both the observed magnitude and two-line element (TLE) residuals.
We collected 353 observations of 61 different Starlink satellites over a
16-month period and we found an average GAIA G magnitude of 5.5 +/- 0.13 with a
standard deviation of 1.12. The average magnitude of V1.0 (pre-VisorSat)
Starlinks was 5.1 +/- 0.13 with a standard deviation of 1.13. SpaceX briefly
used a low-albedo coating on a Starlink satellite called DarkSat to test light
pollution mitigation technologies. The brightness of DarkSat was found to be
7.3 +/- 0.13 with a standard deviation of 0.78, or 7.6 times fainter than V1.0
Starlinks. This concept was later abandoned due to thermal control issues and
sun visors were used in future models called VisorSats. The brightness of
VisorSats was found to be 6.0 +/- 0.13 with a standard deviation of 0.79, or
2.3 times fainter than V1.0 Starlinks. Over the span of the observations, we
found that TLEs were accurate to within an average of 0.12 degrees in right
ascension and -0.08 degrees in declination. The error is predominantly
along-track, corresponding to a 0.3 second time error between the observed and
TLE trajectories. Our observations show that a time difference of 0.3 +/- 0.28
seconds is viable for a proposed 10 second shutter closure time to avoid
Starlinks in images.

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