Was it Starlink?

[Bongo]

Hi all,

Hoping someone here can help me identify what my son and I saw on Saturday night, here in Driffield, East Yorkshire, UK. It was about 7.30pm and we saw what looked like a satellite travel roughly west to east (constant bright light, steady path, no noise). It was followed by another, and another, with maybe 5-7 visible across the sky at any one time, all travelling in the same path, more or less evenly spaced. We certainly counted 15 of them, but there were definitely more (we only thought to start counting after a while!).

Now, from descriptions I've heard/read, I assumed it was Starlink, but the app I use (StarWalk 2) seemed to suggest that Starlink wouldn't be visible. So, I guess, either the app is duff, or I'm misunderstanding what it's telling me, or I saw something else (what?).

I appreciate I'm being a bit vague, but can anyone shed any light on what we saw?

Thanks!

Rob (and a curious 9 year old!)

[John]

We saw something similar from here in the west country on Saturday evening at about that time. I was at an outreach event with Bristol AS. A chain of lights appeared to rise up from the western horizon in a straight line and then winked out one by one as they went into the earths shadow. 

[Alan White]

I would expect that to be Starlink, I have seen similar before.
After launch they look like Morse Code across the sky, I watched this recently from home about a month ago.

Visually interesting curiosity, no doubt for an imager extremely annoying though.

[Bongo]

Just now, Alan White said:

Visually interesting curiosity, no doubt for an imager extremely annoying though.

Hah! Yeah, I thought exactly the same. Pretty cool to see for the first time but I can imagine it could get annoying pretty fast!

[Franklin]

I see those damn things flying across the field of view of my scopes all the time though never with the naked eye. Makes you wonder just how many are up there. I remember when I was a kid just starting out in the hobby (1980) the study of Artificial Satellites was quite a thing, I even had a guidebook on the subject which was published by the BAA. Seeing one whilst observing was quite an event! Now they're just a pain, especially for the imaging crew I expect, though the ISS pass over is always good to see.

[John]

It's only a matter of time before the forum gets renamed "Satellite Gazers Lounge" 🙄

Edited October 16, 2023 by John

[Space Hopper]

1 hour ago, Franklin said:

I see those damn things flying across the field of view of my scopes all the time though never with the naked eye. Makes you wonder just how many are up there. 

Over 7500 currently believe it or not, and well over half that number are Mr Musks 'Starlinks'

I even routinely now see 2 pass through an eyepiece field of view at once going in different directions.

[powerlord]

And 'He of X' plans there to be 42,000 of the things up there eventually. Joy of joys.

[Franklin]

2 minutes ago, powerlord said:

And 'He of X' plans there to be 42,000 of the things up there eventually. Joy of joys.

Why so many? What are they all going to be doing? Other than what the original few were doing.

[Nik271]

The good news (for us) is that the starlink satellites burn in the atmosphere after about 5 years. Let's say Starlink aims for  10,000 satellites at any time. So every year SpaceX has to launch 2000 of them, this is about 40 rocket launches just to maintain this number. Maintaining the network becomes linearly more expensive as the number of satellites grows.  I personally have serious doubts whether the whole thing can ever be profitable. Terrestrial internet services (including mobile phone networks) are cheaper and generally serve the large densely populated parts of the world already. Starlink core customers are  people in remote areas not served by fast net, plus the the digital 'nomads' working on the move. Hard to see how these core customers  will be enough to pay for the maintenance of the network in the long run.

State  sponsored (for example military) applications are extremely uncertain, since the bottom line for such application is - do you have complete faith in the provider of the service? As the Ukrainians found out in case of Starlink - the service can be taken away at any time. 

I think that in 10 years time there actually may not be so many of these low flying satellites.... 

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

Recent history teaches us that with most technologies (think Vinyl, Cassettes, CD now streaming and the same in broadcast systems, in the subsequent decade or so's time there will be something radically different, better and possibly cheaper and Starlink will be yesterdays business model. Their satellites will join the graveyard of obsolete space junk and hopefully then just burn up.

Edited October 16, 2023 by Mr H in Yorkshire

[jjohnson3803]

I've only seen one SL train, but it was a series of medium bright star-like objects moving one after another in a straight line from NNW to NE.  I'd estimate there were around 30 of them, although I lost count somewhere in the teens.  They were quite startling for a few moments until I realized what they were.

I'd wager you saw a train of them regardless of what the app said.

 

 

[ollypenrice]

6 hours ago, Franklin said:

Why so many? What are they all going to be doing? Other than what the original few were doing.

To enable important communication along the lines of...  Waitrose. Waitrose. I'm in Waitrose. Near the beans. Here, I'll send you a seflie. Hang on. There we go. Oooh, hang on. I missed my nails. I went to Nailgun next to Macdonalds. What do you think? Union Jacks ahead of the rugby semi finals. I wanted to please Darren. Oh, listen to me, I mean Dave. Don't go to B and Q. Their nailguns don't look safe to me. 

Olly

[tomato]

I do believe ahem, that the facility is used to enable reliable communication to at least one remote imaging facility in Spain. It's an ill wind...

[ollypenrice]

30 minutes ago, tomato said:

I do believe ahem, that the facility is used to enable reliable communication to at least one remote imaging facility in Spain. It's an ill wind...

Spain? Spain? Never heard of it!

Olly

[Elp]

Methinks should be concatenated to St-ink.

[Franklin]

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

To enable important communication along the lines of.

Important stuff then.

[ollypenrice]

Just now, Franklin said:

Important stuff then.

Oh yes! It's not just about orchestrating the assassination of heads of state...

Olly

[Bugdozer]

2 hours ago, jjohnson3803 said:

I've only seen one SL train, but it was a series of medium bright star-like objects moving one after another in a straight line from NNW to NE.  I'd estimate there were around 30 of them, although I lost count somewhere in the teens.  They were quite startling for a few moments until I realized what they were.

I'd wager you saw a train of them regardless of what the app said.

 

 

They aren't always listed in the apps soon after launch, and when they're in a bunch like that it's some that have only been very recently launched. A couple of days ago there was some footage from the satellite's viewpoint as they were deployed, it was probably those ones.