Lab Notes: Crowding the night sky

SPACEX IS launching satellites into orbit in order to deliver broadband internet service to people across the globe, but the satellites present challenges for astronomers.

In mid-March, SpaceX launched 60 satellites into orbit 340 miles above the surface of the Earth, part of a planned global broadband internet service called Starlink. It was the sixth large batch of satellites to be delivered for the project since May 2019, and the company expects to add thousands of additional units to the network over the next several years, bringing the total to nearly 12,000 by the end of 2027.

Considering that there are currently around 2,000 satellites in orbit, there is growing concern among astronomers that future scientific observations will be spoiled by an increasingly crowded night sky.

The Starlink project is part of Elon Musk’s ambitious goal to establish a human presence on Mars within his lifetime. It’s an expensive proposition, even for the billionaire who founded both Tesla (the electric car company) and SpaceX (the reusable rocket company), among other ventures. Hoping to generate the cash to fund the Mars plans, SpaceX developed the Starlink concept to deliver broadband internet to remote areas of the planet that currently aren’t served, and to be competitive with services in existing markets. Starlink hopes to begin rolling out service in the U.S. and Canada by the end of 2020, with global coverage anticipated in 2021. By the middle of the decade, SpaceX expects $30 billion in annual revenue from Starlink, compared to just $5 billion from its launch business.

Each of the Starlink satellites weighs 500 pounds and is about the size of a table, with a much larger solar panel that unfolds after launch. Because they are so compact and stackable, SpaceX can launch 60 at a time in its Falcon-9 rocket and eventually 400 at once with the Starship rocket. Shortly after launch, as the satellites are ejected from the rocket one by one and deploy their solar arrays, they form long trains of lights moving across the sky, about as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper. Worldwide reports of

BOULDER WEEKLY I UFOs spike after each launch, and the hashtag #Starlinked begins to trend on Twitter as professional astronomers complain about the satellite train drifting through the line of sight of their telescopes.

“If you do imaging with a camera and a longterm exposure, then certainly you will see streaks going through your picture,” says Meinte Veldhuis, president of the Little Thompson Observatory (LTO) in Berthoud.

Veldhuis moved to Colorado from the Netherlands in 1978 for an internship at Ball Aerospace, where he continued to work as a program manager until 2005 on projects including the Hubble space telescope. In 1996, he and a dedicated group of volunteers in Berthoud estab

lished LTO at the local high school to help get students interested in science and math. On the third Friday of every month, they host a public star night with a short presentation followed by telescope viewing, a program that has served more than 78,000 visitors over the past 20 years. Veldhuis helped LTO establish dark sky regulations for Berthoud in 2008 and update them in 2018, so he is sensitive to the possible impact of Starlink.

When the second batch of Starlink satellites launched in November 2019, astronomers started to organize and raise concerns about the project. SpaceX insisted that the trains of bright lights after each launch were temporary, and that the satellites would gradually disperse and fade as they reached their final orbits. Even so, during the hours after sunset and before sunrise when they are not eclipsed by the Earth’s shadow, the satellites continued to be easily visible and had significant impacts on professional astronomers and night sky photographers. In response to the concerns, SpaceX gave one of the satellites a dark coating to see whether it could address the issue. “If you paint the satellite black, that doesn’t help very much,” Veldhuis explains. “The satellite is so much smaller than the solar array, and the solar array you cannot really coat, so when the sun shines on it you can see that really well.”

Astronomers in the U.S. are particularly sensitive to Starlink because they have invested much of the past decade building a new facility to gather panoramic movies of the night sky. Starting in 2022, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will use a telescope mirror as wide as a tennis court with a 3,200-megapixel digital camera to gather images of the entire visible sky every night for 10 years. Among other things, LSST hopes to catalog all of the potentially dangerous asteroids in the solar system. However, with 12,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, more than 200 will be above the horizon at any given time. The LSST expects that nearly every image obtained within two hours of sunset or sunrise will contain a satellite streak, seriously compromising the observations.

“I don’t know how you would solve this. I think we’ll have to live with it,” Veldhuis says. “It’s a trade-off between business and science, and science doesn’t always win.”

From a typical suburb, you can see several hundred stars without binoculars or a telescope. By the middle of the decade, if SpaceX follows through with its current plans for Starlink, about half of the points of light you see in the sky will be moving. To remind yourself of what might be lost, visit LTO in Berthoud for a public star night, and check out heavens-above.com for predictions of when a Starlink satellite will cross the sky where you live.

Travis Metcalfe, Ph.D., is a researcher and science communicator based in Boulder. The Lab Notes series is made possible in part by a research grant from the National Science Foundation.

Hard out here for a pup As Boulder County’s nonprofit animal shelters scale back to prevent the spread of COVID-19, supplies and donations are needed more than ever By Caitlin Rockett

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Where animal shelters are concerned, the news from cities hardest hit by COVID19 was bleak: “More dogs in shelters will be euthanized during coronavirus outbreak,” The Independent wrote of New York; “People are handing over their dogs,” one shelter director told The Seattle Times. Shelters in Phoenix, St. Louis and Memphis also told local journalists they urgently needed more foster families.

But both chapters of the Humane Society in Boulder County say their lists for foster families are overflowing; what they need most right now are pet supplies and monetary donations.

“There’s been a panic or scare that people are surrendering their pets because of this,” says Elizabeth Smokowski, CEO of Longmont Humane Society. “We have seen some [surrenders], but not as high as normal. In the past week we’ve seen eight surrenders; normally we can see eight in a day.” Smokowski says her staff is working from a long list of previously approved foster applicants. Over the weekend of

March 21, in order to allow for quicker foster placements during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Agriculture waived a requirement for foster homes to undergo a physical inspection (all must still pass a background check), leading to even more foster applicants.

“We currently have a very long list,” Smokowski says, adding that the waitlist alone includes nearly 700 applicants. “The community has been wonderful.” Amanda Boerman, marketing and community relations manager for Humane Society of Boulder Valley (HSBV), says the situation at HSBV is similar: There’s been no uptick in animal surrenders, and the need for monetary and supply donations is greater than the need for foster applicants at the moment. But Boerman says the organization is being vigilant about how things could change as more people lose income because of closures and stay-at-home orders.

“We’re trying to keep our eyes and ears open as far as employment and income loss and all of those pieces,” she says. “Our organization does have a

Safety Net program, so if people need a little help with pet food or discounted veterinary support, we definitely support people [with those resources] to keep those [owner-pet] relationships intact.

“We also recognize people are going to have to make tough decisions based on the situation, so we are having conversations about that,” Boerman adds. “That’s part of our big push for donations right now: Let’s be here for our community and for these pets that are going to be impacted. Whether you lose your job or whatever that looks like, we want to keep those relationships together as best we can.”

Keeping those relationships intact can be particularly challenging for pet owners experiencing homelessness, as many emergency shelters won’t allow animals. So both Humane organizations work with government organizations to help those owners as they access shelter services, something that could become more urgent as COVID-19 spreads.

“We have a Safe Keep program,” Smokowski says. “So when there are clients [experiencing homelessness] that need temporary sheltering of their animals, we can work with them through that program.”

As with all current services through either Humane Society, those looking to use the Safe Keep program need to

make an appointment first.

Boerman says that while HSBV’s foster needs are currently met, that may not be the case for other organizations.

“Boulder generally has really good volunteer engagement as a city and as a county. I suspect more rural communities might have a harder time,” she says, though relaxed state regulations on foster home inspections should provide organizations with “a lot more flexibility to recruit those individuals now.”

What’s most troubling is finances. In these early days of stay-at-home, the financial impact to nonprofit organizations like the Humane Society has been outsized. With many public-facing, incomegenerating services — like training classes, adoptions, intake and clinic services — severely reduced or completely halted, there’s simply less money to work with. (As of March 25, Boerman stated via email that HSBV has closed its adoption center.)

“The biggie for us has been the financial impact,” Boerman says. “When you move to reduce person-to-person interactions, not only are you losing out on revenue from services we provide at our open facility, we also had to cancel and postpone all of our fundraising events. We postponed our largest fundraiser, Puttin’ on the Leash, which typically raises about $450,000, indefinitely. We’re trying to see what other opportunities we can seize.”

Longmont Humane Society also had to cancel its annual fundraiser, Homeward Bound, which was scheduled for March 21. According to Smokowski, the event usually nets about $145,000. She says her team is also researching new avenues, like an online auction.

“We have to purchase the software and then learn to use the software, which is a challenge,” she says. “But it’s worth it. We’re just deliberating when the best timing to do that is.”

Creating space for social distancing has also meant both organizations have had to cancel all volunteer rolls for the time being. However, with reduced public-facing services, staff at both organizations have been able to focus on the enrichment work volunteers would normally do, like cleaning and caring for animals still in residence.

Both organizations are currently still facilitating lost-and-found intake services by appointment only to minimize unnecessary interpersonal contact. All other public services are closed. Boerman says BVHS has had to cancel its out-ofstate transfer program, which helps shelters outside of Colorado find homes for animals when their facilities are full, but it is still providing support to in-state municipal organizations, including the Denver Animal Shelter, Adams County Animal Shelter and Aurora Animal Shelter.

“They still had animals in their building that are perfectly prepared for adoption or maybe need a different environment,” she says. “Our team is stepping in and helping those organizations.”

Other animal rescue organizations have been equally hard hit by social distancing protocols. Lovin’ Arms Animal Sanctuary currently cares for 94 animals — cows, pigs, sheep, horses, ducks and other non-domestic animals — that have been rescued from abusive or neglectful situations. Lovin’ Arms provides lifetime care — no fostering — but does rely on donations and significant volunteer work as a nonprofit organization. Executive Director Shartrina White says she and her team are currently training a small back-up team of volunteers who can care for animals in the event that someone on the four-person staff gets sick. The sanctuary has also had to cancel fundraising events that normally keep operations running through the year.

“One of the things I’m interested in is creating content online,” White says. “Animals really help teach children compassion and kindness. We’re looking to do a weekly or daily story time, looking for teachers to help create content online for story time. I know there’s a lot of people who have talents around teaching plant-based eating. We’d like to offer online classes for free and ask for donations; classes about more compassionate ways to eat, even about how to recycle, how to be more environmentally friendly. I think people are at home and if they want to donate their talents to us, if they can help, we’d be grateful.”

Both chapters of the Humane Society in Boulder County and Lovin’ Arms Animal Sanctuary have Amazon wishlists that can be found on their websites.

There are a number of animal welfare and rescue organizations in the area. The following list is not comprehensive. Even if there is no current need for foster families at a given organization, donations and supplies are typically welcome, but please check an organization’s website for specific information on its needs and how you can best be of service. Consider following organizations on social media to stay upto-date.

• The Good Dog Rescue, Westminster, thegooddogrescue.org • Moms and Mutts — Colorado Rescue for Pregnant and Nursing Dogs, Sheridan, mamcorescue.org • Summit Dog Rescue, Boulder, summitdogrescue.org (not seeking new

fosters at this time)

• RezDawg Rescue, Lafayette, rezdawgrescue.org

• Colorado Canine Rescue, Brighton, coloradocaninerescue.org (a small rescue with limited availability)

• Western Border Collie Rescue, wbcrescue.org

• Soul Dog Rescue, Fort Lupton, souldog.org

• Mother Gaia Animal Rescue, mgarcolorado.org

• Rocky Mountain Pet Rescue, Winter Park, mountainpetrescue.org • MaxFund Animal Adoption Center, Denver, maxfund.org • Farfel’s Rescue, Boulder, farfels.com • All Points West German Shorthaired Pointer Rescue, Elizabeth,

allpointswestgsp.org

• L.O.L.A.’s Rescue, lolasrescue.com • Breeder Release Adoption Service, Boncarbo, breederadoptions.org • Humane Society Of The South Platte Valley, Denver, hsspv.org • Denver Animal Shelter, denvergov. org/content/denvergov/en/denver-animalshelter.html

• Rocky Mountain Feline Rescue, rmfr-colorado.org

• Cat Care Society, Lakewood, catcaresociety.org

• Aurora Animal Shelter, auroragov. org/residents/animal_services/aurora_animal_shelter

• Denver Dumb Friends League, ddfl.org

• PawsCo, pawsco.org MORNING GLORY CAFE 1377 FOREST PARK CIRCLE, LAFAYETTE 303.604.6351

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VIRTUAL EVENTS If your organization is planning a virtual event of any kind, please email Caitlin at crockett@boulderweekly.com.

BOULDER ARTS WEEK. MARCH 27-APRIL 4, BOULDERARTSWEEK.ORG/CALENDAR.

n Boulder has the third largest concentration of artists in the country according to a recent study conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts. Celebrate the rich diversity of Boulder County’s cultural landscape at the seventh annual Boulder Arts Week from March 27 to April 4! This large-scale, inclusive celebration of our community’s vibrant arts and cultural offerings and our city’s thriving creativity is now being offered online. Search the calendar for exhibitions, performances, dance, music, theater, public art, lectures, readings and workshops that you can enjoy from home. There are tons of projects that are great for kids and adults alike. Please support your local arts community during this time of uncertainty. TRANS DAY OF REMEMBRANCE. 5:30-7 P.M. TUESDAY, MARCH 31, OUTBOULDER.ORG/EVENTS/2020/3/31/TRANSDAY-OF-CELEBRATION.

n Join this virtual gathering to hear a variety of trans individuals share poetry, songs and other forms of art. Hear local representatives speak. This event is open to all identities. Spanish interpretation will be available at this event. If you are interested in performing poetry/prose or a song, or speaking at our Trans Day of Celebration, please email Charlie Prohaska (they/them) at cprohaska@outboulder.org. For any questions about this event, please email Michal Duffy (they/them) at mduffy@outboulder.org. EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN SPEAKERS SERIES — HOSTED BY THE WOMEN OF THE J AND THE BOULDER JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER. 7 P.M. TUESDAY, MARCH 31, BIT.LY/2UAKFIM

n Join Global Greengrants Fund President and CEO Laura García, and Director of Gender and Equity Ursula Miniszewski for a discussion about the important role women play in addressing climate change. Ursula and Laura, lifelong environmentalists and feminists, will discuss the unique impacts of climate change on women, the gap in funding at the intersection of women and environment, and many of the solutions women are implementing worldwide. This discussion is free and open to all. Please RSVP at the link above or find more info and a link to the Zoom meeting at boulderjcc.org.

Clay Rose and Adam Perry of Gasoline Lollipops Live at Gold Hill Inn. 7 p.m. MST, Sunday, March 29, facebook.com/ GasolineLollipops

n If you missed the virtual show by Clay Rose and Adam Perry of Gasoline Lollipops at Jamestown Mercantile on Sunday, March 22, you’ve got another chance to rock out with these local heroes as they offer another virtual show, this time from Boulder’s Gold Hill Inn, on Sunday, March 29. “We’ll be playing requests only,” Perry says via email, “so listeners can comment, requests and even call the Inn at 303-444-7622 with their song requests and messages, and we’ll put them on speaker phone during the show.” Full-time musicians like Rose have lost livelihood with closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Any donations made during the show (via @Clay-Rose-2 on Venmo and clayrosemusic@gmail.com on PayPal) will be given directly to Clay and his family. Photo credit: George Blosser.

TRUST EXERCISE — SUSAN CHOI

n Susan Choi won the 2019 National Book Award for fiction with this engrossing novel, examining power dynamics, love and memory. Set in a nondescript American suburb in the ’80s, Sarah and David begin a clandestine love affair during the summer of their freshman year of high school. But when sophomore year begins, miscommunications tear their romance apart. Ostensibly a coming-of-age novel, ‘Trust Exercise’ is much more than the first 131 pages would have you believe. By the end, you won’t know what to believe. — Caitlin Rockett

THE ART BEFORE THE HORSE — CHRIS MCDONNELL

n ‘BoJack Horseman’ redefined adult animation. Through six seasons on Netflix, a show about a humanoid horse — a has-been actor, depressed and totally succumbing to his addictions — became a cult classic that addressed mental health and power dynamics in a way no television show has before. Released prior to the fourth season, Chris McDonnell’s book gives die-hard fans a chance to see the pain-staking attention to detail that show creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg and illustrator Lisa Hanawalt applied to every scene of this emotionally charged and hilarious show. — CR

Reincarnation Blues — Michael Poore

n Milo is the oldest soul in the universe. He’s been reincarnated 9,996 times when we meet him, but he’s only got four more lives to get it right — that is, to achieve nirvana and become eternally one with the universe. Oh, and he’s in love with the incarnation of Death. For fans of Neil Gaiman and Kurt Vonnegut, this is a darkly hilarious love story that tenderly examines the messy beauty of humanity. Good for adults and young adults alike. — CR

White Noise — Don DeLillo

n After an “airborne toxic event” throws a midwestern town into chaos, Jack Gladney and his very blended family must find a way to carry on with the everyday chaos of family life. While the black cloud in the sky presents something tangible to fear, it’s the background sound of everyday modern life — the constant presence of television commercials, tabloid magazines, radio programming, satellite dishes, microwaves — that’s surreptitiously unraveling them all. As significant now as it was when it debuted in 1985, ‘White Noise’ offers insight into the way humans are shaped by the constant hum of consumerism. — CR

Sabrina & Corina — Kali Fajardo-Anstine

n The resilience of Latina identity is the heart of Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s collection of short stories, all set in Denver. A combination of strength, grace, caution and trauma mark her characters and their narratives, as we move through time and space watching a city gentrify and a new generation emerge. It’s the story of friendship, mothers and daughters, sisters and cousins, and ultimately heritage and home. Longlisted for a National Book Award, Fajardo-Anstine’s sharp, direct dialogue and prose is full of promise. — Angela K. Evans

1. HANNI EL KHATIB — “STRESSY” If you’re feeling stressed, PalestinianFilipino American singer-songwriter Hanni El Khatib has the song for you, evoking the sounds of those Dust Brother-produced albums of the ’90s. 2. ALEX WILDISH — “WEIGHTLESS” This local singer-songwriter was the winner of last year’s Songwriter Showcase at Folks Fest. “Weightless” is a dreamy, soul-searching example of her lyrical prowess. 3. LEIFUR JAMES — “SUNS OF GOLD” Leifur James’ wide-reaching musical influences — classical, soul, jazz, hiphop, house and ambient — are evident on this noir, piano-driven groove. 4. ROSIE LOWE — “BIRDSONG” A neatly funky track waxing poetic on the energizing power of physical love. 5. STEVE GUNN — “NEW MOON” A mystical folk journey that will have you dreaming of walking away from your desk, out of the city and into the love of your life. 6. JACKLIN — “BODY” A deceptively quiet song about just how exhausting — and terrifying — defeat can be. Jacklin herself has called it “a very long and exaggerated sigh.” HEAVY ROTATION

7. SAULT — “UP ALL NIGHT” Lots of artists want to cultivate an air of mystery, but SAULT means business. Can’t tell you much about these musicians other than they make groovey, dubby, hooks that dare your ass not to shake.

8. JORDAN RAKEI — “MAD WORLD” A soulful, electronic-tinged ditty that wonders aloud how to live in a world that often feels quite mad.

9. PAUL HASLINGER — “INTRINSIC” This minimal, slow-building piece of instrumental noir feels like a never-released interlude ripped off of Trent Reznor’s harddrive.

10. THOM YORKE — “I AM A VERY RUDE PERSON” Nobody does anxiety better than Thom Yorke. On his third solo album, Yorke sets his worries against his most danceable grooves yet, including this subtle head-bobber.

n ‘Apocalypse Later: Harold Camping vs. The End of the World’ As 2010 drew to a close, TV preacher and Biblical mathematician, Harold Camping, predicted the world would end on May 21, 2011. Or on Oct. 21, 2011. Whichever. Most saw him for the crackpot he was, but those “Save the Date” billboards sure did scare the crap out of a lot of people. And from public panic to Camping’s calm, Zeke Piestrup’s documentary is positively captivating. It seems like you can’t go a decade without a good end-of-the-world scare. On Amazon Prime. FILM

n ‘Brakhage’ Coronavirus canceled this month’s Brakhage Center Symposium. It’ll probably cancel the two remaining Celebrating Stan programs this semester as well — damn coronavirus. Need your Brakhage fix? Stream Jim Shedden’s documentary about the experimental filmmaker and CU-Boulder professor for free on Vimeo, and let Brakhage set you right. n ‘After the Storm’ Ryota is a successful novelist, but he’s also a louse of a son, a failure as a spouse and a flop as a father. But he needs a place to stay. Typhoon’s a-coming and his mother, ex-wife and estranged son will have to let him ride it out in their cramped little apartment. It’s quiet, sweet and surprisingly hopeful — just the sort of story you’d expect from Japanese maestro, Hirokazu Kore-eda. His latest, ‘The Truth’, will hit theaters after this storm passes. Until then, give ‘After the Storm’ a stream via Kanopy.

n ‘American Factory’ Winner of the 2019 Oscar for Best Documentary, ‘American Factory’ tells the tale of a shuttered Ohio auto plant brought back to life thanks to Chinese investors (sort of). In today’s world and today’s economy, there’s no such thing as local, no matter how hard we want to believe. On Netflix.

n ‘The Housemaid’ Dong-sik Kim just needed a little extra help around the house. He’s busy working at the factory during the day, composing music at night. His wife takes care of their two kids, but when she becomes pregnant with their third, help must be hired. Enter Myungsook, young, attractive and completely unhinged. At first, you think Myung-sook is a stock femme fatale, but then she becomes so much more. Claustrophobic and relentless, ‘The Housemaid’ is the perfect intersection of noir and horror, and one of South Korea’s greatest films. ‘Parasite’ got you hankering for more? ‘The Housemaid’ is at The Criterion Channel.