Starlink Satellites

[Tilly2]

I was out in the garden at around 5.30pm and saw a very strange phenomenon in the sky. It was a stream of lights travelling across the sky from West to East. I called Mr T to come and have a look and we stood looking up, totally baffled by what we were seeing.

An internet search told me that it was Starlink satellites launched from SpaceX. So, apparently, we have Mr Musk to thank for these satellites. Have a Google and see for yourself how creepy this train of satellites looks.

[Xeronema]

Oh my Tilly, lets hope that Musk himself didn't personally launch them. If he did, I'd be getting my skidlid ready.

[Tilly2]

He owns SpaceX so it's his baby. Apparently, they are to aid internet connection worldwide.

[Tuvok]

https://www.heavens-above.com/main.aspx

Put in your location and you can get times for all sorts of things.

[Tilly2]

Thanks for that link, Tuvok.

[Atheist]

All the junk whizzing around, mainly there to enable moving images of humans mating to be watched by humans not mating.
Poor old Berners Lee.

[calmck]

Very often see them over Portugal. Musk sent one up especially for Ukraine I think

[Tilly2]

That link is actually a bit complicated. Is there a simpler one?

[douglas9401]

^ well that's just odd ^

[Tilly2]

I don't know how I didn't know about them. I still think it's creepy.

[Xeronema]

Yeah, the new Tesla Phone is going to use Starlink satellites instead of phone masts.

[Tilly2]

What's odd?

[douglas9401]

Atheist's odd train of thought.

[Tuvok]

Heavens Above is easy.

Either pick a location near to you, or enter your own location.

Then choose what you want times for eg. the ISS

You will then get where it first appears, its midpoint and where it disappears.

Remember brighter magnitude is represented by a negative number, so -2 is brighter than -1

[Tilly2]

Yes, I see that, Dougie. :-)

[Xeronema]

calmck, if I recall correctly, he sent up a satellite for Ukrainians so that they could keep connected to the internet, however he charged a lot more for the use of the service than Americans were paying.

[Etch]

It seems Tilly2 saw the satellites from the Starlink G4-37 launch on the 17 Dec. They are are due to appear again tomorrow night at about the same time (5:30pm). I saw a spectacular stream back in 2020, but not since. The reflectivity of the satellites was reduced, so they have been less noticeable to the naked eye.

[Atheist]

Dougie, I think I once read that the majority of internet data is pornography. Perhaps Starlink is nothing to do with that? Or perhaps I'm out of date and the porn content has now exceeded 100% of all data.

[Tilly2]

Thanks Etch for telling me exactly what we were looking at.

I can sleep peacefully now.

[ichkeria]

To be clear, what Elon Musk has supplied to Ukraine is access to the Starlink system through the provision of thousands of terminals and ground stations.
All at no charge.
Musk may be a bizarre individual but that has been an invaluable assistance.

[Tilly2]

That's good to hear, Itch.