Re:SpaceX tests black satellite to reduce ‘megaconstellation...
by petschge on Thursday January 16, 2020 @06:56PM
(#22070432)
Sure. But increasing the number of frames with tracks increased the number of datapoints you need to throw away, reducing the effective time on target and therefore sensitivity of your observations. Astronomers are not idiots. They know how to deal with obstructions. But that is not free of cost. Neither in observational limits nor computer time nor required brain power.
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Re:SpaceX tests black satellite to reduce ‘megaconstellation...
by gibybo on Thursday January 16, 2020 @07:04PM
(#22070479)
Sure it's not without cost, but in most cases the cost is not very high.
Remember you don't need to throw away the whole frame, only the pixels that were obstructed. One track across a frame will obstruct less than 1% of the data in that frame.