October 7, 2025
Registration required: Adirondack Sky Center & Observatory
Jeffrey Miller—ASC&O Board Member, St. Lawrence University
Radio astronomers have long had to deal with human-created sources of interference when scanning the heavens: radio transmissions, microwave ovens, Wi-Fi routers, cell phones. As technology advances it creates more problems for astronomers trying to understand the nature of the Universe. Satellites in orbit around the Earth have frequently caused streaks on photographs taken through large visible-light telescopes, but with the increase of large “satellite constellations” we are now also seeing interference at radio wavelengths. St. Lawrence University astronomer Jeffrey Miller will talk about some of these sources of radio telescope interference, and the measures that astronomers are undertaking to protect the darkness of the night.