Starlink : Satellite Spotting

[Robotbeat]

It should be reiterated that it has always been predictable that lots of Starlink satellites would be visible. The issue is that people were surprised that SpaceX actually managed to beat their competitors.

Don't underestimate SpaceX. Make your concerns known early so they can be addressed in the design phase.

[Slarty1080]

I'm a bit puzzled; heavens above shows the orbit as 433x438km. N2yo shows current altitude as 450km. Obviously at least one is wrong. Any ideas on why?
SNIP...

The sats were deployed into a low orbit and will make their own way up to their final operational 550 km orbit. I suspect that the difference is due to timing of when the measurments were taken. If you look in a few days or weeks they will be in a higher orbit.

[bkellysky]

Suburban skies and a high, thin cloud layer about an hour and a quarter after sunset.
Could see the Big Dipper.
Didn't see them.
Used N2YO.com information.

[edzieba]

Explaining an aesthetic to someone who doesn't have it is a fruitless exercise. There's a very large body of prose, poetry and art built around the night sky.  For those who live in a well-lit city or don't spend time looking at the night sky, that body of work means little or nothing.

For them, the loss of the night sky affects them not at all.  For others, it's a big deal.  If you care enough for an answer, start with an introductory college course on astronomy, and while you're at it do literature, art history and music appreciation. Heck, as long as you're expanding your mind, read some of the material on the SSI website.

The proposed Starlink constellation will hardly blot out the existing sky, merely add to it. Might one propose that poets and artists up in arms about a striking addition to the night sky might instead use it to create new works of poetry and art?

[AJW]

Sunday night in NorCal the train we saw appeared like three distinct lights about the width of Orion's belt crossing together through the bowl of the Big Dipper.  Awesome seeing them flying in formation.   Last night they were barely visible and only appeared briefly by the end of the Big Dipper's handle every 30-40 seconds or so.   We wouldn't have seen them if we hadn't known exactly where to look.   It was almost like shooting stars where one person would see a brief faint streak and call it out in about the amount of time it would take for the satellite to disappear.

My wife and I will be at the Kejimkujik National Park Dark Sky Preserve in Nova Scotia in July and I'll be sure to see just how visible the passes are then.  I'm not too concerned.

[Lar]

Mods please move applicable posts here from this thread - https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=47594.msg1950452#msg1950452

I've moved as many as I could find. Everyone please PM me with links to posts that should have been moved or weren't, or posts that were moved that should not have been.

Thanks

[flyright]

...
The proposed Starlink constellation will hardly blot out the existing sky, merely add to it. Might one propose that poets and artists up in arms about a striking addition to the night sky might instead use it to create new works of poetry and art?

I like this sentiment. To me seeing bright objects doing things up there among the stars is a thrilling experience. I always want to know what each is about.

I've tried to see Starlink on several passes now, but no luck so far. Mostly bad luck with clouds, but may have been off on timing also. I'll keep looking.

[Robotbeat]

...
The proposed Starlink constellation will hardly blot out the existing sky, merely add to it. Might one propose that poets and artists up in arms about a striking addition to the night sky might instead use it to create new works of poetry and art?

I like this sentiment. To me seeing bright objects doing things up there among the stars is a thrilling experience. I always want to know what each is about.

I've tried to see Starlink on several passes now, but no luck so far. Mostly bad luck with clouds, but may have been off on timing also. I'll keep looking.

They're pretty dim now, so keep your eyes well-adjusted.

[JAFO]

United flight 08 from Chengdu-Sfo, 0830ishZ, fl380, n37 e179.5-w179, had high hopes but I think we juuuuuussst missed them.      

[Norm38]

I realized tonight that I prize the stillness of the night sky.  I don't want to look up at the stars and see constant motion. I hope there's something they can do to make the satellites non-reflective. 

Do you feel the same way when you see shooting stars?  ISS pass over?  Jumbo jets cruising across the sky?  Clouds?  Bats?  The moon in a different spot every night?  The planets moving?

When has the night sky ever been still?

[chrisking0997]

I realized tonight that I prize the stillness of the night sky.  I don't want to look up at the stars and see constant motion. I hope there's something they can do to make the satellites non-reflective. 

Do you feel the same way when you see shooting stars?  ISS pass over?  Jumbo jets cruising across the sky?  Clouds?  Bats?  The moon in a different spot every night?  The planets moving?

When has the night sky ever been still?

not OP but I can answer for me as an amateur astronomer:

shooting stars - no, they are part of the sky in and of themselves
ISS - maybe, but one object that rarely shows up during the nighttime is hardly a bother 
Jumbo jets - yes
clouds - absolutely...can we get rid of them?
bats - Im not sure Ive ever heard of anyones astrophotography results or observing session being negatively affected by a bat.
planets and moon - no

I think you might have been taking "still" a little too literally.  Regardless, it is unavoidable that these sats will affect astronomy in some way (just as every sat before them has).  Whether or not it will be enough to matter is up for debate.  Its a reality astronomers will need to adjust to accordingly.  And unfortunately the vast majority of people will not care because they really dont care about the night sky anyways.  But Id rather have to adjust to these sats that actually provide value vs some "artist" throwing up some junk or a giant golden M floating across the sky.  Perhaps Ill feel differently when there are 12k of them up there

[Norm38]

We'll just have to move astronomy off world.  Will take care of those pesky clouds.

[Semmel]

I have done a second observation just a few minutes ago. They were very faint. Only visible when passing directly overhead and I only noticed them in the first place because some were doing very bright iridium flare like reflections. A totally different view then a few days ago.
First of all, I expected to see them at the tail of Leo (or the snout of the mouse of you, like me, find the star sign mis-attributed). I know from several sources that they had to pass close to Denebola (the star). However, I did not see them there, despite my efforts with a 60mm binocular and a 100mm telescope. The telescope had a too narrow field of view to find them directly, but I expected to see the first ones and guide it into their pass. I failed because they were so dim.
Second, I looked overhead to see them there with better success due to the flares. But from my location that was quite uncomfortable leaning out of the balcony like that, so I missed most of them. I saw maybe 5 or 6, I didnt count.
Just after Starlink, there were several other sats, that passed over in other directions that were much brighter and much more consistently bright.

If this effect is a sign of how they will be visible as a constellation, the concerns of some people are greatly exaggerated. I propose to relax and enjoy the show as long as it lasts. For me at least, its already over since I have no good way of observing them consistently.

[speedevil]

I have done a second observation just a few minutes ago. They were very faint.

Yesterday I had a look from 56N in scotland.
I saw one which I believe was probably Starlink, at perhaps magnitude 3.
The seeing conditions were poor, but there were very certainly not multiple sats  at magnitude 5.
(had 70mm binoculars pointed at trail of the bright one)
Saw about twelve other satellites during this time.
Quite rainy tonight, so chances for any of tonights passes seem 0.

[eriblo]

I'm far from an avid stargazer but I feel comfortable in saying that my night sky will not be ruined (and I mostly look for satellites anyway ). Had a pass yesterday and one tonight with the train passing right between α and ε Ser at maximum brightness. My sky is fairly bright and light polluted so I was both nights limited to about m=4.5 without aids (could just barely see λ Ser) and got a grand total of 3 easily visible Starlink satellites (m~3) and maybe 10 brighter passes from other random satellites from just looking at the sky for 20 minutes...

Both nights I also got 15-20 satellites in the first part of the train through my low-powered binoculars but I'd judge them to be at m=5 or below at maximum.

[su27k]

Interesting observation twitter thread from an astronomer: https://twitter.com/cgbassa/status/1133827825113423872

@cgbassa: Last night I observed two passes of the 60 @SpaceX #Starlink satellites. Though they are usually to faint to be seen with the naked eye, they flare regularly. In some cases, as this image shows, they can outshine the brightest stars in the night sky!

@cgbassa: Here are the same images as a video:   The #Starlink satellites are moving from the lower right to the upper left through the constellations of Bootes and Corona Borealis.  These are 120x15s exposures taken with an all sky camera between 21:40 and 22:10UTC.

@cgbassa: During the second pass (23:21 to 23:45UTC in the constellation of Lyra), I recorded raw video to get a better understanding of their behaviour.  Here are a bunch of them; some of them flare to magnitude +4 or +5, while some stay around magnitude +6.

@cgbassa: Upon reviewing the raw video frames, all 64 objects associated by @18SPCS to the #Starlink launch are visible. The four objects marked as debris (44295-44298) match predictions, and show different behaviour from the #Starlink satellites.

@cgbassa: This figure takes the individual video frames and tracks the brightness of each of the 64 #Starlink objects as they pass through the camera field-of-view. The four debris objects clearly stand out in their optical behaviour, while the payloads either flare or remain constant.

@cgbassa: None of the objects classified as payloads matched positions predicted by the CSpOC/@18SPCS orbital elements (then 1.4 days old), where as the four objects classified as debris did. This suggests that all 60 #Starlink satellites are operational and adjusting their orbits.

@cgbassa: Given that most of the #Starlink satellites showed flares in the same part of the sky seems to suggest that they are a similar configuration, leading to reflections of sunlight from the same reflective surfaces.

@cgbassa: Time will tell how the optical behaviour of these satellites will evolve. I have not seen any public information on the operational orientation of the #Starlink satellites, and which parts of their surfaces may lead to flares. Perhaps @elonmusk can share information on this?

@planet4589: Cees, just to clarify, do you see mag ~0 flares from the payloads sometimes, or only ever from the 4 debris objects?

@cgbassa: The magnitude -1 flares were from the payloads. The debris objects had already passed.

[Scylla]

SpaceX Starlink satellite train at dusk

Movie Vertigo

Published on May 28, 2019
Realtime video of the SpaceX Starlink satellite train, taken at 21:26 UTC on May 26, 2019 in the UK with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and 50mm f/1.8 lens. Shutter speed 1/25 sec. ISO 32000.  Noise reduced with Neat Video.

[OxCartMark]

Starlink satellite train, taken at 21:26 UTC on May 26, 2019 in the UK

Very nice, the best I've seen I think.
___________

You can see that the autonomous anti-collision system is working already, look at 1:08 in that video.  A gap was opened up in the train at the exact crossing point of that plane.   

[almightycat]

Now that the sats are starting to arrive at their final altitude, are they as visible as they were at first or have they lost their reflectiveness? unfortunately I live a little to far north to check myself . I'm curious if anyone has concrete numbers on their albedo now vs other satellites.

[guckyfan]

Now that the sats are starting to arrive at their final altitude, are they as visible as they were at first or have they lost their reflectiveness? unfortunately I live a little to far north to check myself . I'm curious if anyone has concrete numbers on their albedo now vs other satellites.

Look at Heavens above

https://www.heavens-above.com

They give magnitude for satellites visible at your location. The brightest I find for my location is now mag +3.0. That may not be bright enough to be visible over local light pollution at the darkest point near to my place at the outer city limits of Berlin, Germany. Mostly they are much dimmer than that.