Characterizing the All-Sky Brightness of Satellite Mega-Constellations and the Impact on Astronomy Research

Abstract

Measuring photometric brightness is a common tool for characterizaing satellites. However, characterizing satellite mega-constellations and their impact on astronomy research requires a new approach and methodology. A few measurements of singular satellites are not sufficient to fully describe a mega-constellation and assess its impact on modern astronomical systems. Characterizing the brightness of a satellite mega-constellation requires a comprehensive measurement program conducting numerous observations over the entire set of critical variables. Utilizing Pomenis, a small-aperture and wide field-of-view astrograph, we developed an automated observing program to measure the photometric brightness of mega-constellation satellites. We report the summary results of 7631 separate observations and the statistical distribution of brightness for the Starlink, visored-Starlink, Starlink DarkSat, and OneWeb satellites.