A September 1 2022 article at Sky & Telescope by Antony Mallama reports
on the imminent launch by AST SpaceMobile of a prototype
BlueWalker/BlueBird satellite.
AST SpaceMobile plans to orbit more than 100 of these spacecraft by the end of 2024.
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Originally Posted by Antony Mallama, Sky & Telescope
The first member of this new group, called BlueWalker 3, will feature a giant antenna array covering an area of 64 square meters (689 square feet). Observers on the ground will see bright sunlight reflected from this structure. After on-orbit tests of BlueWalker 3 are completed, the operational satellites, called BlueBirds, will be launched. BlueBirds may produce even more glaring light pollution since they are significantly larger. The commercial appeal of these satellites is that they will link directly to cell phones without the need of a cell tower. AST SpaceMobile has already secured a license from the Federal Communications Commission to test the prototype.
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Originally Posted by Antony Mallama, Sky & Telescope
GET INVOLVED: MEASURE SATELLITE BRIGHTNESS
BlueWalker 3 is expected to be among the brightest objects in the night sky after the antenna unfolds. Amateur astronomers can help record this satellite's brightness, bringing awareness to bright satellites' effects on our night sky and on astronomy.
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Astrophotographers can also play an important role in the study of artificial satellites, by uploading celestial images impacted by satellite streaks to the TrailBlazer website. Meredith Rawls and Dino Bektešević (both at University of Washington) are developing this data archive as part of the IAU’s response to the problems posed by spacecraft. Trailblazer stores the impacted images and records selected metadata, so users can search for satellite-streaked images by date, location, and other parameters such as sky position and telescope.
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Full article here :-
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronom...-you-can-help/
