So U.S. spy agencies harrass astronomers running sky surveys like #PanSTARRS or #Rubin and try to censor their images to keep some #satellites and their orbits secret: theatlantic.com/science/archiv… or msn.com/en-us/news/technology/… - but doesn't the UN Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spa… require anyone launching something into orbit (essentially humanity's commons) to publicly disclose the orbit and other details? Something doesn't compute here at all ...
When a Telescope Is a National-Security Risk
How do you know what you’re not allowed to see?Ross Andersen (The Atlantic)
Allen Very Serious Versfeld
in reply to Daniel Fischer • • •I used to know a guy who lives a few provinces from me in South Africa, who proudly boasts that he's been identified by name as a threat to US national security in Congress, because he's an amateur satellite tracker. He learned his skills back in the 60s, as a MOONWATCH volunteer, and now just watches the skies (optical telescopes and radio) for anything in orbit. Whatever he sees, he compares notes with other observers around the world and calculates orbits, and publishes them.
And as he keeps pointing out, these things are impossible to keep secret because they're right there in the open above our heads. You can't stop people in other countries from talking about stuff they saw just by stamping "TOP SECRET" on a document somewhere.
Unfortunately, I haven't spoken to the guy in over a decade, so I have no idea how Starlink has affected his work.