Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Rocky, Question about Starlink

Rocky, or anybody else, I've got a few questions about the visibility of these satellites. I see that they just launched a group of Starlink Satellites. I'm on vacation on Cape Cod, and last night I went out to the truck to get something and I looked up and saw this line of blue lights moving across the sky. I quickly ran inside and got my wife and BIL so that they knew that I wasn't lying about the UFO. I figured there were about 20 of them, and they launched 22. We watched it as it went out of sight and the Googled it. Turns out this was that Starlink mission I guess. It was really cool.

I'm guessing that they were in Low Earth Orbit. Do they continue to orbit like that, or do they become in a stationary higher orbit where they sit in one spot over the Earth?

Why do they have lights on them? Is isn't like there's a lot of people up there to get the hell out of the way.

They move to a higher orbit, beyond naked eye visual range, but nowhere near geostationary. They don't have lights on them. You can only see them for a few days after launch, and even then, only an hour or so after sunset or before dawn, when you are in darkness, but they are in sunlight.

As soon as they check them out and calibrate them, they will move each one from their current 150 miles to a higher orbit, spaced out hundreds of miles apart at an altitude of from 350 to 450 miles up.

Here's a map of the whole kit and kaboodle of them, in real time. Have fun moving your location and zooming in and out. You can see all the singles, and the tracks of the most recent launches, all bunched up. Cool! LINK

Warning: JCon trigger alert!

The lights you saw are just reflected sunlight.

That is a chit pile of satellites!

I had no idea....

To get uninterrupted internet service from satellites that pass from horizon to horizon in 10 minutes or so, you need a chit pile of satellites to have one in sight at all times.

They have launched over 4,000 of them so far, with over 3,000 of them in service. Several hundred of the earliest ones have already been turned off and caused to burn up. They plan to replace them - with ever improved models - constantly for as long as the system is in use. They no longer launch Version 1 models, and all the new ones are Version 2A, which are four times as efficient as the first ones. Version 2B will be even bigger and much more capable. They will eventually launch 30,000 of them, but only a fraction of that number will be in orbit at any one time.

I'll be glad to see them blanket my part of the world. Have my name on the waiting list... Map shows to be getting closer, but no notification from them yet.

That map will freak out JC.

Fascinating.

Just before Christmas a couple years ago, I was on a winter scout campout. It was pitch dark in the mountains and the stars were spectacular. Then over the horizon came a chain of 60 +/- Starlink satellites. They got almost straight overhead before they hit the shadow and disappeared. It was really neat to see.

The Mobile service seems pricey... https://www.starlink.com/mobility

BUT if it works anywhere and anytime (like I hope their future cell will) it will be worth it.

100% reliable is a very bold claim.

I am personally impressed with where Musk is taking this satellite project.

100% Global coverage for civilians is a mind-blowing precept.

Mobile is MUCH more complicated and difficult than a fixed receiver because the receiver has to know where (and when) it is to reliably track those moving satellites.

Very similar to at sea satellite receivers, you are moving the satellites are stationary, the Space-X deal is the reverse, until you buy the mobile unit for say an RV then both points move, perfect a computer navigation.

Got a buddy 1 hour away that has good enough reception for internet, TV and cel phones. I am on the very edge, so we could recieve, with interruptions, but on the list we are supposed to have full service in 23, we will see.

I am a 1970s C-ban dish user, installer, so for me it is one more time in the barrel. No big deal. But, for medical purposes, having a reliable constant loop connection makes several new medical devices possible for use, like insulin automatic injectors, in rural areas. Medical is my interest, not watching movies or talking on a "stupid" phone.

We do not have land lines or cable at all, plus no consistent cel service, wifi or computer connections, Space-x may not work out, but maybe it will. Makes sense to me and for, me to try it.

Copy that...

The concept is a game changer though.

High speed anywhere on the planet from low orbit Sats.

To even imagine that level of engineering leaves me in awe.

A Geodesic dome of comms...

Simply an unreal enterprise being achieved via private Capitalism.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the responses. It was probably one of the coolest things I've seen in the sky in a long time. The funny thing is that I wasn't out there specifically looking for it, I just happened to look up and there they were. Thanks Rocky, I appreciate the explanation. The technology is pretty incredible.

I had a feeling that it was sunlight that we were seeing. But I swear, they looked like blue lights going across the sky. I told my wife that it was reflected sunlight, and she said BS, they had lights on them.