Hey anyone that is into astronomy and looking at the night sky...

I like to look at the stars but I have no idea usually what I'm looking at. I have an app and I can often find planets and constellations. Sometimes I see a satellite going by and often the app will tell me what it's name is. App is Sky View.

Anyhow tonight I was looking at the big dipper, little dipper below and left when I saw 3 satellites in a row going by fairly quickly. As each one disappeared to the right another appeared to the left. All going in the same direction, straight row. Seems to be continuing. My app shows nothing.

So is this normal or is it an alien invasion and Covid 19 is a diversion?

Starlink satellites.

https://www.space.com/spacex-s...-sky-visibility.html

Check here:
https://www.heavens-above.com/

Maybe SpaceX sats

It’s the start of the SpaceX starlink constellation. At the end of all it this the constellation should have about 42,000 satellites and will ultimately render roughly 30% of the night sky unusable for research astronomy

I have an App that shows satellites, space debris and all the rest.

I think it’s called sky view

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
I have an App that shows satellites, space debris and all the rest.

I think it’s called sky view

Yeah as I mentioned in my post that's what I'm using. It did not show these satellites.

I’ve been using the Sky Guide app. I have it set to send an alert when the ISS passes over.

It does contain the Starlink satellites in its database. Haven’t seen them yet but thanks to this thread I’ll be on the lookout for them.

Michael

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
I have an App that shows satellites, space debris and all the rest.

I think it’s called sky view

Yeah as I mentioned in my post that's what I'm using. It did not show these satellites.

You have to pay for the premium version. It’s $3 I think.

You seent that too? The other night I saw one, and then another, and another, and they did that for like a half an hour, going roughly west to east. I grabbed y camera and did some time lapse action, so it looks like some lasers blasting across the sky.

I'm drunk now, but in the morningish I'll upload them.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
It’s the start of the SpaceX starlink constellation. At the end of all it this the constellation should have about 42,000 satellites and will ultimately render roughly 30% of the night sky unusable for research astronomy

I wonder what happens when they start failing? 42,000 is a huge number so I expect even a small fraction of units going dark to be a lot. Does the boy genius have a plan to service/collect them or do we have even more space junk whizzing around up there?

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
I have an App that shows satellites, space debris and all the rest.

I think it’s called sky view

Yeah as I mentioned in my post that's what I'm using. It did not show these satellites.

You have to pay for the premium version. It’s $3 I think.

I have the upgraded version. One of the few apps I actually thought was worth paying for.

Definitely the Space X satellites that they throw out like 60 at a time per rocket launch.