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Saw something strange in photos from Cherry Springs over the weekend
I drove up to Cherry Springs State Park on Saturday night, which is supposed to be one of the darkest spots on the east coast. The Milky Way was incredible, no doubt about that. But I kept noticing these weird streaks in my long exposure shots, like faint orange lines going across the frame. At first I thought my lens was dirty or I had a light leak from a car passing by. Turns out there were three Starlink satellites passing through at different times, each one leaving a trail. Has anyone else had this problem at dark sky parks recently?
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viola_butler10d agoProlific Poster
Wait, 47 streaks in one 30 second shot? That's insane, I didn't realize it was that bad up there. I used to think people were overreacting about Starlink ruining astrophotography, like it was just a few lines here and there. But hearing that number from a real dark sky preserve really changes my mind. My friend took some shots at Cherry Springs last spring and only had a couple streaks, so the increase is way faster than I imagined. It makes me wonder how much longer places like that can even call themselves dark sky spots.
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mary_kelly12d ago
My buddy who runs the star party up at Cherry Springs has been tracking this for months now. He said on a clear night during peak Starlink deployment times they counted 47 satellite streaks across a single 30-second exposure, which is just wild for a place that's supposed to be a certified dark sky preserve. I hate that we're basically turning the night sky into a highway with no stop signs.
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47 streaks in 30 seconds. That's about one every half second for a place that's supposed to be dark. It reminds me of how even in my own neighborhood, you can't look up without seeing porch lights and security floods washing everything out. We've been adding so much light to the ground that nobody even notices the sky getting brighter anymore. It's like we decided cheap convenience is worth more than actually seeing the Milky Way. Same with the satellites, I guess. We'll just keep filling the sky with junk until there's nothing left to see but our own exhaust trails.
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