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+--- Thread: Close Encounter w/Starlink 64-14 (/showthread.php?tid=785)
Close Encounter w/Starlink 64-14 - Anne K - 04-22-2022
Last night as Kristi & I were leaving the Merc at approximately 9:50pm we were looking up at the stars by the post office and saw an enormous rod of brilliant lights coming from the NW slowly descending directly toward us at very low altitude! Neither of us had ever seen anything like it so we properly freaked. Did anyone else in town witness this?
Unlike a string of starlink satellites that are separated with space between them-this seemed to resemble several satellites rigidly attached to form one long single craft with a single silent and weightless propulsion-like a Starship! Moving like the pace of a Zeppelin.
It was so close over our heads and seemed to suspend there that we weren’t entirely sure what its next move was. Was it going to beam us up or land in Town Park and probe JT? Surprisingly it suddenly made a turn toward the SW and rapidly disappeared. Dissolved into the night. No clouds. Just poof. It was gone. Then we really freaked out-very Star Wars/ET all in one-certainly unforgettable.
Come to discover there was a big SpaceX satellite launch yesterday, and this was spotted over Michigan, Wisconsin and Cleveland last night-same description and behavior…and those viewers had a similar reaction-ha!
I guess they launch them quite often and when they are first launched they are close together and they spread apart over time. But there’s just not a lot of info out there. I’ve scoured our local news and can’t find a thing about a Colorado sighting last night.
Anyway I thought this would be of interest to all our Spaceship Geeks out there and to all of those waiting to get Starlinked-it’s obviously on its way!? I would love to understand more about the physics of what we experienced- Krypton thrusters and such.
May the Force be with Us!
RE: Close Encounter w/Starlink 64-14 - Scott Allen - 04-22-2022
(04-22-2022, 09:00 PM)Anne K Wrote: Hi Anne-
We also saw the satellite train last night just out of luck. It was quite spectacular, wasn't it?
I was outside looking for something and happened to spot the train.
I have seen the satellites much more spread out, but post-launch (yesterday) they are much more clustered and these were just hours into orbit.
Here's a website you can use for predictions, although it isn't 100% accurate with the visibility:
https://findstarlink.com/
The satellites went out of view when they crossed over the day/night terminator, that is, the dividing line between sunlight and darkness from that altitude.
With no sunlight for reflection, the birds went into darkness and appeared to disappear from our perspective.
I am not an expert on their orbital design or propulsion, but they do use Hall thrusters, which use an electric field to accelerate the propellant.
Over time, the satellites will go into their proper orbits and use it for orbital control, collision avoidance and de-orbit at end of life.
Scott
RE: Close Encounter w/Starlink 64-14 - Anne K - 04-23-2022
Wow Scott! Thanks for your insanely cool explanation of its sudden disappearance. It was quite illusory-couldn’t get our heads around it-so thank you for enlightening us with your knowledgeable SpaceSpeak! I’m so happy you saw it too! Wondrous and intimidating at the same time, hey? Here’s a (2019) link with some more info and video:
https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites-spotted-night-sky-video.html
RE: Close Encounter w/Starlink 64-14 - Nancy Farmer - 04-23-2022
Thanks for posting the link so those of us who didn't see it could get an idea of what it looked like. You must have been blown away by seeing it!
RE: Close Encounter w/Starlink 64-14 - KirschProd - 04-27-2022
Musk is out of control! I used to watch for shooting stars and the occasional satellite but now all we see when we look at the stars is countless points of space JUNK ensnaring us in bad juju! The richest among us have unlimited power and influence to do as they will but are sadly only capable of fools' folly!