Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
As long as I'm screaming, I hate hate hate that lower altitude orbits has become a standard request from astronomers to satellite operators.
Lower orbits make satellites blur out more for the specific setup of the Vera Rubin Observatory, I do not know if this is true for any other observatories in the world.
Lower orbits make satellites brighter and faster, which is worse for naked-eye stargazers and astrophotographers, and presumably for wildlife though nobody I know has studied that yet.
Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
But the worst misconception is that the Earth's shadow will block more of the satellites at lower altitudes. This is true, but ONLY if you are at latitudes closer to the equator than 40 or so.
If you're closer to the poles (particularly around 50N or S, where I live, and a lot of you in Europe live), the Earth's shadow doesn't help. There's even more naked-eye visible satellites.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ac341b