I saw in excess of 40 bright Starlink satellites trailing across the sky in a train one after another - around 20 seconds apart. If you've ever watched the International Space Station fly across the sky, it was a bit like that (not quite as bright, but not far off). They were so bright because the sun was reflecting off them. You certainly couldn't miss them, and they just kept coming. I took a couple of time-lapse shots on my iPhone but they didn't come out that well. The time-lapse trail photo below is one of a myriad you'll find on Twitter that shows how many of these things there were. The long lines are the time-lapse trails from the satellites, the shorter horizontal lines are star trails due to the length of the exposure - the vertical streak in the bottom left quadrant may be a meteor (we're in the middle of the Lyrid meter shower currently).
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| Starlink timelapse April 19 2020 Credit @HH_Bert |
These satellites form part of what will ultimately be a "constellation" of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX company intended to provide global internet access (plus undoubtedly many other uses). As I understand it, there are currently around 360 of these satellites in LEO, but ultimately it's rumoured that there might be as many as 40,000 (yes you read that right - forty thousand!).
Musk is a controversial character - he's the chap who launched a Tesla Roadster into space with a space mannequin in February 2018. Whilst these Starlink satellites will no doubt perform some useful scientific purpose, they carry major concerns on two fronts.
Firstly, that they just add to the space junk that already exists up there. The US Space Surveillance Network already calculates that there are over 20,000 items of "debris" in orbit, ranging from tiny bits to considerable chunks of used rocket/satellites. If rumours around Starlink are true, this adds a further 40,000. And we don't yet know what other space capable countries like China, Russia or India for example are putting up there. That's a massive amount of clutter, and whilst it may be "out of sight", it proses real issues for the International Space Station for example that has to regularly manoeuvre to avoid space junk.
Secondly, those that observe the night Skys, from professional and commercial researchers to amateurs including astrophotographers are massively concerned that the night skies may eventually become unobservable due to the amount of clutter up there. And they have a real point. Anyone who's ever taken a night photo will probably have captured the odd satellite of plane in their image. If there are tens of thousands of these satellites up there, it will make astrophotography nigh on impossible.
It's countered that as these eventually make their way to their final orbit they'll be too high to see with the naked eye, and SpaceX is apparently also trialling some with a non-reflective material. Whether either statement is true we'll just have to wait and see.
Whatever your view, there's no doubt that last night's display was an awesome sight, and tonights promises to be even better. I literally stood open mouthed in my garden for nearly twenty minutes watching these things pass over.
If you want to get into observing the night sky follow @VirtualAstro on Twitter - he'll tell you what's around and what's coming over. The pass tonight will be around 9.55pm - get out and have a look. If you're feeling bold, you can also try to photograph these using just your phone.
I use an iPhone app called NightCap from the App Store - I'm note sure what's available for Android, but I'm sure there must be something similar. It has a number of modes including ISS mode, and light trails mode. Set it up pointing at where you think the ISS (or in this case satellites) are going to come from, press record and that's it. Press stop when you're done. Use a tripod if you can, or secure it from moving however you can. You might not get it right first time. It's trial and error.
Until tomorrow....
#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives
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