Astronomy week continues! I finished up my most recent shoot around 4 am and had everything packed up and ready to go by 4:30. Then, just as I was getting into my car, I looked north and saw a string of eight or nine stars in an eerily perfect line.
I'm not much of a constellation guy, but I had never heard of a constellation like this. And sure enough, it was moving. It wasn't a constellation, it was a string of Starlink satellites.
I pulled out my camera and tripod, and by a stroke of good luck I got one good picture. This was a four-second exposure, which is not very long, but even so you can see the streaks made by the moving satellites. The bright star near the center is Capella, and according to Stellarium Starlink satellites go by Capella all the time. I don't know how often there's a long, perfect string of them all moving in the same direction, though.
Very interesting photo.
Hmm. I’m hoping one of the tribe will know whose they might be.
This article shows how the trains of satellites work: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2023/starlink-satellite-train-spacex-visibility/
Interesting article, but……Elon Musk????
Why does Elon Musk matter about a piece of technology that can get broadband internet to any place on the surface of the planet?
"As a Starlink satellite orbits, it will unfold its solar panels and lay flat in a low drag position to resist gravity’s pull back to Earth."
Wowza. They've figured out how to resist gravity! Did you know, if you stand on one foot with your palms touching over your head, you are lighter and will nearly levitate off the earth?
Thank you. Into my second Vodka of the night I almost spewed, laughing out loud. Well done.
They do that because even at that altitude there's still a tiny amount of atmosphere.
It is a fairly dumb way of saying it.
Like every other environment, full of human made trash and artifices.
But it's still really cool.
Can Dyson spheres be far behind?
Very far...
There was a starlink launch of 20 satellites on July 3rd. I was under the impression that the trains were more visible and regular soon after launch...
There's a launch every few weeks, so currently, this is a continuous problem while they're moving to the proper altitude.
But their plan is to use the Starship to carrying them, and then they can have half or a quarter as many launches... also, later satellites should stay up longer as they work out the kinks..
Each Starlink launch carries a bunch of satellites, so there's a perfect string of them when they're initially deployed, then they're moved about.