EFFECTS OF THE SATELLITE POWER SYSTEM ON GROUND-BASED ASTRONOMICAL TELESCOPES P. B. Boyce GENERAL COMMENTS Astronomers are continually working to extract information from the small numbers of photons which arrive at the Earth from distant stars and galaxies. For many years now the brightness of the night sky has been a major limiting factor in the attempt to extend our knowledge of the universe. The blackouts in California during the Second World War provided an opportunity to make some substantial breakthroughs in our understanding of the composition of our neighboring galaxies. We have come a long way since then. We have bigger telescopes at darker sites. We have new detectors with higher efficiencies and better characteristics than the old photographic plates used in the 1940s. We have improved our ability to count photons and detect signals in the presence of the sky background. But the fact remains that the interesting and significant discoveries continue to be made at the limits of what can be detected with the current telescopes, auxiliary instruments and techniques. For this reason any significant increase in the brightness of the night sky will have a major impact on further progress in astronomy, an impact far larger than one might think from the small increases in brightness being predicted. The light pollution generated by the SPS will have several undesirable characteristics: 1. The additional light will be widespread. Unlike city lights which are confined to relatively limited area, the SPS light pollution will affect all U.S. observatories. A significant number of active foreign observatories will also be affected. Table 1 lists the observatories with telescopes of 1.5-meter-diameter aperture or larger. All the telescopes are in active use and most have been built within the last decade. In particular, the two major foreign telescopes in Hawaii have just been completed and were placed on
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