8 papers
The Impact of Space Debris on Optical Astronomy
Anthony Mallama, Sergey Karpov, Richard E. Cole
Photometric observations of space debris objects brighter than magnitudes 6.0, 7.0 and 8.0 are characterized. Those magnitudes pertain to different levels of interference with astr…
Secular Brightness Trends of Starlink and OneWeb Satellites
Anthony Mallama
Magnitudes recorded from 2021 through 2026 for Starlink VisorSats reveal brightening of 0.6 magnitudes, while those of OneWeb show dimming of 0.4. Both trends are significant at 3…
Brightness Characterization and Modeling for Amazon Leo Satellites
Anthony Mallama, Richard E. Cole, Hui Zhi +4
The mean apparent magnitude of Amazon Leo satellites is 6.28 based on 1,938 observations. For spacecraft in their operational mode, 92% exceeded the brightness limit recommended by…
Satellite Constellations Exceed the Limits of Acceptable Brightness Established by the IAU
Anthony Mallama, Richard E. Cole
Brightness statistics for satellites of the Starlink, BlueBird, Qianfan, Guowang and OneWeb constellations are reported. The means and standard deviations are compared to acceptabl…
Brightness Characteristics of the Qianfan Satellites and Evidence That Some Are Tumbling
Anthony Mallama, Richard E. Cole, Stephan Hellmich +3
The mean apparent magnitude of the Qianfan satellites is 5.76 +/- 0.04, while the mean of magnitudes adjusted to a distance of 1,000 km is 5.24 +/- 0.04, based on 1,161 observation…
Initial Observations of the First BlueBird Spacecraft and a Model of Their Brightness
Richard E. Cole, Anthony Mallama, Scott Harrington +1
Based on a large set of visual observations, the mean apparent magnitude of BlueBird satellites is 3.44, while the mean of magnitudes adjusted to a uniform distance of 1000 km is 3…