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Posted on 12/22/2019 5:04:32 PM PST by Ronaldus Magnus
A few minutes ago a strange, perfectly straight line of about 30 bright lights was visible moving across southern Wisconsin from the southwest to the northeast. They would appear just over the horizon and disappear as they came overhead. It was initially a quite shocking sight so Freepers might want to be on the lookout for them and know what they are before they first see them.
These were the 60 or so SpaceX Starlink satellites orbiting at an altitude of 174 miles. They can be tracked using websites (https://www.satflare.com/track.asp?q=starlink and http://stuffin.space). They are visible only under clear skies shortly before sunrise and after sunset. I was surprised how bright they were and how unnerving it was to see a perfectly straight line of "stars" moving slowly through the sky.
I saw those 30 years ago...
Puny earthlings.
Pay no attention to these lights.
They are merely satellites.
Return to your duties.
That is all.
I just walked outside a few minutes ago and saw them. Thank you for posting this.
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I’m way too far West to see them.
We saw them in 99 my neighbors kid couldn’t sleep for a week.......
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Similar here, We were out camping and my kids could not sleep for a few days after. Just night before last my teenage Grandkids were discussing UFOs and my daughter gave me the “side look”. Yep, it still has her locked in... :)
“Will be less visible from earth once they reach their final orbit.”
Good, because there is already enough crap messing up my view of the heavens...
“...too far west” Huh? You do know they orbit the earth? Just have to check Heavens Above or similar website to find a pass over your location.
Pretty cool since they were launched Nov. 11.
*It is a Count Down! They are using our satellites against us!
I meant right now, this pass, I’ll check and found out when they pass my way.
Then these were not what we saw 30 years ago were they... :)
Apple has announced a future Apple-phone ability to use satellite linkage as a direct-connect option, avoiding a need of ground based services for communication.
"As of November 2019, SpaceX has deployed 122 satellites. They plan to deploy 60 more per Falcon 9 launch, with launches as often as every two weeks after late 2019. In total, nearly 12,000 satellites will be deployed by the mid-2020s, with a possible later extension to 42,000." - wiki
That should help in areas with no ground based cellular service. Remote areas and third world countries.
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