Enjoy a family-friendly astronomy talk by one of our knowledgeable volunteers followed by viewing through a variety of small outside telescopes (weather permitting). Talk begins at 9:00pm. Note: a separate Dome Tour ticket is required for viewing through our 30” telescope.
Presenter: Dave Cappellucci
Title: A Sky Full of Satellites
Description: Since the first launch of 60 Starlink satellites in 2019, more than 12,342 Starlinks have been launched as of June 2026. More than 10,000 of those are still in orbit. SpaceX has been joined by other commercial ventures in the US and China launching an additional 1600 or so satellites into other low-earth orbiting constellations, not to mention over a thousand in geostationary orbits. There are plans to launch up to a million more, including the notion of building orbital data centers. Is there room for them all? What will this do to astronomical observatories, such as the Gunnison Valley Observatory? What will this do to our night sky? What happens if they begin colliding into each other? We will cover these topics and more. If conditions are good, we may even see a few of these satellites flying overhead.
Enjoy a family-friendly astronomy talk by one of our knowledgeable volunteers followed by viewing through a variety of small outside telescopes (weather permitting). Talk begins at 9:00pm. Note: a separate Dome Tour ticket is required for viewing through our 30” telescope.
Presenter: Dave Cappellucci
Title: A Sky Full of Satellites
Description: Since the first launch of 60 Starlink satellites in 2019, more than 12,342 Starlinks have been launched as of June 2026. More than 10,000 of those are still in orbit. SpaceX has been joined by other commercial ventures in the US and China launching an additional 1600 or so satellites into other low-earth orbiting constellations, not to mention over a thousand in geostationary orbits. There are plans to launch up to a million more, including the notion of building orbital data centers. Is there room for them all? What will this do to astronomical observatories, such as the Gunnison Valley Observatory? What will this do to our night sky? What happens if they begin colliding into each other? We will cover these topics and more. If conditions are good, we may even see a few of these satellites flying overhead.
Program begins at 9:00 PM. The astronomy talk will last approximately 30 minutes.
