Its parameters are very well described and the result is beautiful (visually), interesting, and provocative. Yes, people will misinterpret all sorts of things like this, but I don't know what else the author could have done besides not create it at all, for fear of... these accusations?
replyPhotographer made a cool photo.
replyHeadline writer, a different person, used it to create misleading headlines.
"Photographer made a cool image"
replyThere I fixed it for you. This isn't a photo in any traditional sense.
Ironically, the same technique used to remove the stars and isolate the satellites could have been used to remove the satellites and isolate the stars.
replyIt would take 100X less effort to remove the satellites.
Why is that ironic?
replyYou're just pointing out that there are tools to automate this.
Why any less effort? Masking the stars out and masking them in should take the same amount of time and effort.
replyFrom the article:
reply> Much of the time was spent painstakingly erasing stars, to reveal the satellites.
Many more stars than satellites in every frame. Erasing a couple satellites at most is quick. Erasing every star in the sky and keeping a couple satellites is not.