I just saw dozens of Starlink satellites moving across the sky and it was incredible.

SofNascimento · May 10, 2020

I'm a bit awestruck right now.

I've been a fan of space since forever, but I mostly experience it from a screen. Sure, I see the night sky everyday, but on account of the place where I live I can count in the fingers the number of stars/planets I can see at night. I never seen a launch or used a more sophisticated equipment to see the heavenly bodies.

So looking at the sky right now, and seeing dozen of bright dots, moving incredible fast and in clear lines was incredible. I could clearly see 3, possibly 4 trajectories and one after the other they passed overhead. I didn't count but there were 2 or 3 dozens, maybe more. It felt surreal. The stuff of science fiction.

And knowing what they are, and that it was humans that put them there is something else.

Anyway, just wanted to share it. I think for a lot of people there still a chance of seeing them today. My advice is: don't miss it.

Einchy · May 10, 2020

Seeing them was amazing, it was something straight outta of a sci-fi movie. A very surreal sight.

Also, these fuckers haven't flown over here in a while. I keep checking the website but nothing for a while.

sonder · May 10, 2020

pretty wild stuff

SpaceX Starlink Satellites Tracker

Calculate when you can see the SpaceX Starlink satellites above your location

findstarlink.com

swift-darius · May 10, 2020

abysmal light pollution, and unfortunately likely the start of much worse in the future. I wish stuff like this would be regulated; I find it atrocious personally

Typhon · May 10, 2020

swift-darius said:
abysmal light pollution, and unfortunately likely the start of much worse in the future. I wish stuff like this would be regulated; I find it atrocious personally

.

GYODX · May 10, 2020

The light intensity should fade as they climb into higher orbit. But yes, there definitely needs to be a regulatory body for this kind of stuff (just as there is for things like radio frequency spectrum allocations).

Lord Fanny · May 10, 2020

I wonder if you shoot all the unsold copies of Starlink into the space could you see them from the Earth

Alastor3 · May 10, 2020

swift-darius said:
abysmal light pollution, and unfortunately likely the start of much worse in the future. I wish stuff like this would be regulated; I find it atrocious personally

at least we have regulation against publicity from space

kess · May 10, 2020

You don't have to look up to Elon anymore, now he can look down on you.

SofNascimento · May 10, 2020

Einchy said:
Seeing them was amazing, it was something straight outta of a sci-fi movie. A very surreal sight.

Also, these fuckers haven't flown over here in a while. I keep checking the website but nothing for a while.

I didn't even know you could see with the naked eye until today. Or at least not in a big city...

Also, just saw the ISS a few minutes ago. It look like a distant airplane... the incrdible thing about the Starlink is how many of those satallites are there, and moving all in the same trajectory.

It's anormal.

Xe4 · May 10, 2020

Living in an area with single ISP, I feel very conflicted over modern satellite internet.

On one hand the light pollution is going to be hard to ignore, not just from Starlink, but all other satellite constellations put up by other companies. This is especially hard as someone who loves astronomy and stargazing.

But companies coasting on garbage service and internet speed by virtue of being the *only* available option really need to be taken down a notch, the scum.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

JoJo'sDentCo · May 10, 2020

Gross to me.

Dark Knight · May 10, 2020

swift-darius said:
abysmal light pollution, and unfortunately likely the start of much worse in the future. I wish stuff like this would be regulated; I find it atrocious personally

What do you think the answer is? To play devil's advocate, should humans not progress in order to leave the natural splendor of the universe intact? What would regulation do in this case, is what I'm asking.

game-biz · May 10, 2020

It's awesome stuff.

Possum Armada · May 10, 2020

swift-darius said:
abysmal light pollution, and unfortunately likely the start of much worse in the future. I wish stuff like this would be regulated; I find it atrocious personally

This right here.

Twstr709 · May 10, 2020

Dark Knight said:
What do you think the answer is? To play devil's advocate, should humans not progress in order to leave the natural splendor of the universe intact? What would regulation do in this case, is what I'm asking.

Making the satellites less reflective. It's been requested, but hasn't been done yet as of the last launch in April.

Dark Knight · May 10, 2020

Twstr709 said:
Making the satellites less reflective. It's been requested, but hasn't been done yet as of the last launch in April.

Gotcha, that seems completely reasonable.

jonamok · May 10, 2020

swift-darius said:
abysmal light pollution, and unfortunately likely the start of much worse in the future. I wish stuff like this would be regulated; I find it atrocious personally

Kane clapping gif.

tATu · May 10, 2020

Twstr709 said:
Making the satellites less reflective. It's been requested, but hasn't been done yet as of the last launch in April.

They're going to start launching less reflective starlink satalites with Launch 9, possibly Launch 8. Launch 8 is slated for May 17th and Launch 9 is listed as late May

Yerffej · May 10, 2020

Gimme my magic internet.

MoonsaultSlayer · May 10, 2020

For those trashing this, it's something I've been feeling about major cities and horizons disappearing in favor of giant slabs blocking a more wondrous view. I think playing Spider-Man PS4 triggered this thought. A sense of claustrophobia knowing you'll never have a good glimpse of the horizon from ground level in the middle of the city.

I imagine if the night sky starts filling up with viral constellations and ads and service satellites, it'd be equivalent to this notion. What can you do?

Gashprex · May 10, 2020

swift-darius said:
abysmal light pollution, and unfortunately likely the start of much worse in the future. I wish stuff like this would be regulated; I find it atrocious personally

Its amazing how short sighted people can be - Starlink is intended to provide high speed internet access to rural and undeserved areas. There is also a great possibility that in countries where the internet is controlled by the government that it could bypass government censorship to allow its citizens to access uncensored information.

They are already reducing the light issues and believe they have solved moving forward. But by all means, only focus on potential light pollution instead of the potential benefits.

"Our objectives, generally, are to make the satellites invisible to the naked eye within a week, and to minimize the impact on astronomy, especially so that we do not saturate observatory detectors and inhibit discoveries," Musk said.

SpaceX is planning test VisorSat on the company's next Starlink launch. "It's a bit of a challenge, but that's our goal," he said. He didn't say how many satellites would be equipped with visors, or when the launch was scheduled. SpaceX has been performing Starlink launches at the rate of at least one a month so far this year, most recently April 22.

SpaceX to test Starlink “sun visor” to reduce brightness

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said April 27 that he hopes to test a new way to reduce the brightness of the company’s Starlink satellites on the next launch.

spacenews.com

Ryno23 · May 10, 2020

Before the inevitable posts complaining about this, should stop to consider just how profound this is. Gigabit speed low latency internet to an entire continent that's never had any internet infrastructure before and likely never would have.

swift-darius · May 10, 2020

Gashprex said:
Its amazing how short sighted people can be - Starlink is intended to provide high speed internet access to rural and undeserved areas. There is also a great possibility that in countries where the internet is controlled by the government that it could bypass government censorship to allow its citizens to access uncensored information.

They are already reducing the light issues and believe they have solved moving forward. But by all means, only focus on potential light pollution instead of the potential benefits.

yeah, because sending up swarms of private satellites without accounting for the planet-wide night-sky disruption isn't short-sighted

Deleted member 62561 · May 10, 2020

Ryno23 said:
Before the inevitable posts complaining about this, should stop to consider just how profound this is. Gigabit speed low latency internet to an entire continent that's never had any internet infrastructure before and likely never would have.

Africa would NEVER have internet without elon? at any point? 10,000 years from now they'd still be waiting?

Deleted member 25600 · May 10, 2020

Gashprex said:
Its amazing how short sighted people can be - Starlink is intended to provide high speed internet access to rural and undeserved areas. There is also a great possibility that in countries where the internet is controlled by the government that it could bypass government censorship to allow its citizens to access uncensored information.

They are already reducing the light issues and believe they have solved moving forward. But by all means, only focus on potential light pollution instead of the potential benefits.

SpaceX to test Starlink “sun visor” to reduce brightness

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said April 27 that he hopes to test a new way to reduce the brightness of the company’s Starlink satellites on the next launch.

spacenews.com

Hey, maybe stop the launches until that solution is able to be implemented? Maybe? No?

game-biz · May 10, 2020

hisdadjesty said:
Africa would NEVER have internet without elon? at any point? 10,000 years from now they'd still be waiting?

I mean the sooner the better. If I was living in Africa I would very much say that it's worth it.

Ryno23 · May 10, 2020

hisdadjesty said:
Africa would NEVER have internet without elon? at any point? 10,000 years from now they'd still be waiting?

Ok perhaps I should have said in our lifetimes.. That's the same as never to anyone alive

BringBackSonics · May 10, 2020

Better internet access for rural communities or a hit on light pollution. It's a fair debate on either side.

Spinluck · May 10, 2020

That is so dope, I wanna see this one night :(

Also, what are the downsides of light pollution from these satellites? I can't imagine that it is significant.

Ryno23 said:
Before the inevitable posts complaining about this, we should stop to consider just how profound this is. Gigabit speed low latency internet to an entire continent that's never had any internet infrastructure before and likely never would have.

ERA might explode if Starlink is remotely successful.

hisdadjesty said:
Africa would NEVER have internet without elon? at any point? 10,000 years from now they'd still be waiting?

Do you know of anyone else doing anything similar?

Who is working on getting Africa low latency gigabit-speed internet?

Shit, I live in Chicago and don't even have that.

Vincent Alexander · May 10, 2020

swift-darius said:
abysmal light pollution, and unfortunately likely the start of much worse in the future. I wish stuff like this would be regulated; I find it atrocious personally

Yep. We as a species can't figure out how to make shit better for people without also fucking it up for future generations at the same time. Although, I'm not as concerned with light pollution as I am with space junk.

Mokujin · May 10, 2020

swift-darius said:
abysmal light pollution, and unfortunately likely the start of much worse in the future. I wish stuff like this would be regulated; I find it atrocious personally

I have to agree, I was kind of amazed for a minute when I found about it, then realized how bad for the night sky this is.

Magic-Man · May 10, 2020

Ehh, I've never really seen the stars anyways. Not the way they should be seen. That's downside of living in a massively urban area, you'll never be able to do or see certain things without leaving.

If this provides internet access to billions of people, I'm all for it. Stargazing isn't worth keeping people in the dark (in terms of the internet) for longer than necessary.

CitizenVectron · May 10, 2020

game-biz said:
I mean the sooner the better. If I was living in Africa I would very much say that it's worth it.

Much of Africa already has internet through either wireless or broadband access. Africa isn't some monolithic, tribal place. There are big, modern cities there along with the rural, less-developed areas. I mean, the US has both NYC and rural Appalachia, for example.

I'm not knocking this idea, just pointing out that Africa isn't a primitive place unrelated to the rest of the world.

zashga · May 10, 2020

Can't really see them since I live in a big city, but it's funny to think these would be more visible in a location that would traditionally allow for more "pristine" nighttime views. Not sure how I feel about it, honestly. It's kind of concerning to think how many more private satellites will be up there, changing the night sky and becoming a hazard for future space flight.

Deleted member 29280 · May 10, 2020

As much as it sucks, I'll take some a bit of light pollution over being perpetually gouged by shitty satellite companies for worthless internet, thanks.

sangreal · May 10, 2020

Ryno23 said:
Before the inevitable posts complaining about this, should stop to consider just how profound this is. Gigabit speed low latency internet to an entire continent that's never had any internet infrastructure before and likely never would have.

the entire continent of Africa has never had any internet infrastructure?

Gashprex · May 10, 2020

DrSlek said:
Hey, maybe stop the launches until that solution is able to be implemented? Maybe? No?

Given the very minimal amount launched thus far and they deorbit after 5 years automatically there is really no reason to wait (verified to be working). The space junk argument really has no basis in reality when it comes to Starlink.\

And nobody is claiming it will provide internet to all of Africa, its for rural areas with no access. Running broadband lines in remote areas is prohibitively expensive.

With respect to light pollution, the satellites won't be visible to the naked eye when they reach final orbit - the concern is with long exposure astronomy photos.

GYODX · May 10, 2020

sangreal said:
the entire continent of Africa has never had any internet infrastructure?

Rural U.S. doesn't have Internet infrastructure. It's not a big leap to assume that most of Africa (outside the more urbanized areas) is in a worse state.

SofNascimento · May 10, 2020

zashga said:
Can't really see them since I live in a big city, but it's funny to think these would be more visible in a location that would traditionally allow for more "pristine" nighttime views. Not sure how I feel about it, honestly. It's kind of concerning to think how many more private satellites will be up there, changing the night sky and becoming a hazard for future space flight.

I live in a big city an they looked spetacular.

Deleted member 2328 · May 10, 2020

I'm more worried about the space debris issue than light pollution.
I would be more at ease if they were sure to burn in the atmosphere after a set number of orbits. But even then the deployment itself is very dangerous in that regard and there's no telling if other companies will start deploying similar systems.

DeadmansTheory · May 10, 2020

SkyGlow - what if Los Angeles didn't have light pollution

deimosmasque · May 11, 2020

sechsterangriff said:
I'm more worried about the space debris issue than light pollution.
I would be more at ease if they were sure to burn in the atmosphere after a set number of orbits. But even then the deployment itself is very dangerous in that regard and there's no telling if other companies will start deploying similar systems.

From all I've read they burn up completely when they deorbit. 15 have already been deorbited and burned up in the atmosphere.

Skittles · May 11, 2020

Elon finally making anime real, pog

MV5BMThjNTY5OGYtZTIwNy00MTVjLWJmNmItMjk4Y2U0YWQxZDgzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjc3OTE4Nzk@._V1_.jpg

Kyuur · May 11, 2020

swift-darius said:
abysmal light pollution, and unfortunately likely the start of much worse in the future. I wish stuff like this would be regulated; I find it atrocious personally

This reads like NIMBYism. Internet access is important.

Barzul · May 11, 2020

Ryno23 said:
Before the inevitable posts complaining about this, should stop to consider just how profound this is. Gigabit speed low latency internet to an entire continent that's never had any internet infrastructure before and likely never would have.

Ok I admire the goal of starlink and I'm just going to guess you got a bit overzealous with your post. The continent (its fucking huge) definitely has internet, datacenters, broadband, LTE etc. I know this because well I'm African (Nigeria) and was there last year. Now are there large swathes severely underserved areas that would do well to have internet options that are more accessible? Yes definitely. I'd just say this Elon has made several grand proclamations and while he has followed up on a number of them, some of them end up being watered down or even not being done at all. I know this, I own a Tesla so I've experienced it enough times to say that a tweet from Elon means it's something one of his companies is looking to implement, how it turns out is another matter completely.

Deleted member 2328 · May 11, 2020

deimosmasque said:
From all I've read they burn up completely when they deorbit. 15 have already been deorbited and burned up in the atmosphere.

That's if the deployment is successful and there are no collisions that may take them out of their intended orbit. There was already one near miss with an existing satellite and I can only imagine the situation after more frequent launches and when other operators join in.
This thing needs to be regulated ASAP.

mutantmagnet · May 11, 2020

Ryno23 said:
Before the inevitable posts complaining about this, should stop to consider just how profound this is. Gigabit speed low latency internet to an entire continent that's never had any internet infrastructure before and likely never would have.

African countries have internet. It's limited in most places but they have it.

TheOne · May 11, 2020

sechsterangriff said:
That's if the deployment is successful and there are no collisions that may take them out of their intended orbit. There was already one near miss with an existing satellite and I can only imagine the situation after more frequent launches and when other operators join in.
This thing needs to be regulated ASAP.

Shit yes. It's not hard at all to imagine a situation akin to Gravity, that is, destructive chain-reaction. The more they launch these fuckers, the bigger the risk for it to happen. The idea is awesome, but I feel like Space X makes too much of an advancement in this field in such a short amount of time that it's hard to believe they're thinking as much as possible of everything that might happen. What drives Space X first and foremost is money.

Ayato_Kanzaki · May 11, 2020

swift-darius said:
abysmal light pollution, and unfortunately likely the start of much worse in the future. I wish stuff like this would be regulated; I find it atrocious personally

It will be regulated, but as usual, only after the catastrophe happens. We already lose several satellites to debris each year when there's around 6500 or them. Tesla want to put what, 49 000 Skylink satellites on low orbit? We're about to get a Kessler syndrome. Last year there nearly was a collision between a skylink and another satellite, and the team in charge of the skylink had not reacted.

We're going to get stuck on the ground for decades, and it will be because of the hubris of a single man, and the complacency of governements.

I just saw dozens of Starlink satellites moving across the sky and it was incredible.

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