Has anyone seen a trail of Starlink Satellites in the night sky?

I saw it about a year ago, one after another all lined up

 

It was too cloudy in Jax to see them tonight. Bummer.

 

Couple years ago we were on our pool deck in Palm Coast. I looked up and it looked like a line of airplanes in unison flying south. Crazy! Made a post on FB and someone mentioned Starlink.

It was really wild seeing. But you can track them to see if they will be in your view. We got lucky that night!

SpaceX Starlink Satellites Tracker

 

There’s a number of things going on. When you see the satellite trains they are dispersing and moving to their final orbits. They are concentrated (which draws the eye) and in a lower orbit (relatively larger and measurably brighter). As they move farther apart and increase orbit they become fainter. Additionally, they have visors and adjust their orientation to minimize light reflection toward Earth that takes some time to accomplish. Yes, you can still see Starlink satellites if you know where to look but they're a third less bright than their predecessors and similar other satellites.

 

Interesting information

Starlink burns up 1.3 tons of satellites every hour / 22.8 million pounds per year with that charged metallic dust left floating around in the atmosphere. No idea if the concern about this electrically charged magnetic dust degrading the earths magnetic field or not but it makes me wonder if there is an environmental review and approval process for launching things into our atmosphere

Physicist warns Starlink satellites risk stripping Earth's atmosphere (msn.com)

An ex-NASA physicist warns cheap satellite 'megaconstellations' like Elon Musk 's Starlink could disrupt Earth's magnetosphere exposing all life to deadly cosmic rays. Dr. Sierra Solter-Hunt's new study draws on new estimates that Musk's SpaceX is burning up over 2,755 lbs (1.3 tons) of wireless internet satellite debris into Earth's atmosphere every hour — creating a metal layer of 'conductive particulate' in orbit. 'I was very surprised,' physicist Dr Solter-Hunt told DailyMail.com. 'No one has given much research to the accumulation of metal dust from the space industry.'

There are 5,504 Starlink satellites now in orbit, as of the last estimate by astronomers this March, of which 5,442 are operational. But tens of thousands more are planned. Particles from these satellites at the end of their lifecycle could 'distort or trap the magnetic field' that keeps Earth's atmosphere from escaping , the physicist said, 'with all of the highly-conductive metal trash that is all settling in one region.' Although she notes it is an 'extreme case,' such a layer of charged metal dust could lead to 'atmospheric stripping' akin to the ancient fates of Mars and Mercury.

After working on NASA's comet-catching Stardust spacecraft research team in 2012, Dr Solter-Hunt spent three years at the US Air Force Research Laboratory. There she studied the electromagnetic behavior of plasma plumes in low-Earth orbit (LEO), the region of the upper-atmosphere where Starlink's orbital network resides. She now consults on space weather's impact on the aerospace industry. 'We are at about 10,000 satellites [in orbit] right now, but in 10 to 15 years there are likely going to be 100,000,' Dr. Solter-Hunt told DailyMail.com.

'By the time we get to 100,000 I think it could be too late,' she said, 'in terms of this unplanned geoengineering experiment that is going to occur.' The cause for her concern is that vast this fine-particle metal debris already vastly outweighs the weight of the magnetically charged particles that protect Earth from cosmic radiation. The heaviest known portion of Earth's magnetosphere are the large loops of trapped particles called the Van Allen Belts — two donut-shaped regions of small particles energized by cosmic radiation from the sun. The belts loop from Earth's magnetically charged North and South Poles.

 

Twice now we have seen them. One night we were out swimming at our place in Palm Coast a few years ago and looked up. At first I thought it was airplanes flying together. It really is odd the first time you see it. Really cool when you know what it is.

You can actually track them to see if they will ever be in your view. Unlike an eclipse. It will be quite often...

Live Starlink Satellite and Coverage Map (satellitemap.space)

***Looks like @dave_the_thinker already posted a tracking site***

 

They are popular with the rural people that need good internet. What we get out here is most times slow if it is working at all. Choices are slim for most of us. It is pretty much cell towers or starlink for internet that is fast enough to stream video. Cell does not work for many who are not close enough and can get really slow if to many users are on at one time. Starlink works great so they say but is not cheap. I do pretty good with cell service as the tower is in a cow pasture behind the house.