mentioned more specific activities like astrophotography, light pollution education and aurora watching. However, not all astrotourism follows this model. For instance, Danemann's company markets an "audio experience" to parks and similar places for self-guided stargazing adventures. Johns reports that Kielder Observatory is branching into this space as well, offering “immersive and digital” experiences in addition to its usual educational activities. The respondents reported a wide range of visitor/guest totals each year, ranging from 2500 to 25,000 before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
We asked whether the appearance of satellites in the night sky affects the respondents’ work in astrotourism, and if so, what the significance of the effect is now. The respondents mostly reported no effect at all, or a net-positive effect in terms of engaging the curiosity of guests. One (Singer) specifically noted that satellites “frequently interfere” with his company's astrophotography offerings.
Of the respondents who are field practitioners of astrotourism, all noted that the appearance of satellites in the night sky has increased in recent years; two rated the status quo as “much more” than in the past. Frank summarized the effect on visual observations of the night sky: “It's simply the multitude of satellites moving across the sky at different speeds that change the view and also distract the participants, especially since the brightness is often as great as that of stars.” Alexander compared the situation to the past, in which “apart from the ISS, spotting satellites would need an app and you'd have to be sharp-eyed to spot them. Now they're all over the place” (e.g., Fig. 2)
We then asked whether the respondents were aware of their guests’/clients’ attitudes toward satellites. All suggested that guests or users of their products are curious about satellite constellations like Starlink and some enjoy seeing them. “Guests tend to be excited to see satellites,” Alexander wrote. “The ISS and Starlink in particular put on a good show, and on dark sky nights there's normally a couple of guests who end up informally competing to see who can count the most.” Despite presenting a nuisance to the astrophotographers among his guests, Singer noted “they are a welcomed added attraction to the stargazing programs. Guests are excited to see them.”
Often it seems that astrotourism experiences are when these people for the first time pause to consider the implications of such large numbers of objects orbiting Earth. This suggests that astrotourism may be a route to increasing the overall public awareness of the issue of the sustainable use of outer space. Alexander described engaging with guests on the topic of satellites: “Everyone tends to feel that space is getting too cluttered, that there might come a time where the sky is just crawling with sat tracks and most people are unhappy with the way billionaires can just launch whatever they like with impunity.” Frank described her guests as “impressed and curious” with the mega-constellation phenomenon. “People want to know a lot of information. Especially the Starlink satellites are causing some anxiety and some participants are a bit afraid.” Johns reported her guests at Kielder Observatory “love seeing them and it's an interesting opener to a discussion around the sustainability of space. The Starlink trains are especially spectacular in this regard.”[1]
We were curious as to whether, compared to the situation now, astrotourism operators envisioned a time in the future when the number of satellites might be sufficiently large as to disrupt or negatively impact their businesses. Responses to this question were mixed, with some suggesting relatively little
- ↑ “Starlink trains” refers to the configuration of newly launched Starlink objects that are physically grouped together in their initial parking orbits. At ~ 300 km altitude, they are brighter than the same objects after reaching their 550-km station orbits approximately 90 days later.
