The Lyrid meteor shower may have peaked over the UK yesterday but that doesn’t mean you can’t spot another celestial display passing overhead tonight.
A string of satellites known as Starlink are passing over the UK all this week, creating a mesmerising string of moving lights in the night sky.
The satellites come from SpaceX, the private space company founded by Elon Musk, and are designed to beam down an internet signal to the entire planet. At the moment there are 300 Starlink satellites in place but SpaceX aim to eventually have 12,000 orbiting the planet.
The satellites will be passing above the UK tonight and will move across the sky from west to east.
The Starlink satellites will pass over the UK at 9.34pm this evening and the passage across the sky will last for about six minutes.
Viewing conditions for the satellites are good at the moment thanks to a dark New Moon in the sky and a lack of cloud cover.
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While you can’t always see the Starlink satellites (there are different ‘trains’ of the satellites, some brighter than others) that clearly, this evening’s viewing should be ideal.
‘Initially the spacing of the satellites and their proximity to the planet’s surface mean they look like a “string of bright pearls” in the night sky, making them very easy to spot,’ Malika Andress from the National Space Centre wrote in a recent blog post. ‘But over time they distance themselves from each other and move further into space, making them less obvious to the casual observer.’
‘When we can see them, we call them flares (like the famous Iridium flares you can see from the Iridium communication satellites). This happens when you on the Earth, the satellite and the Sun are positioned in such a way as the Sun is reflected off the satellite and towards you.
‘As a result, many of the passes will be ‘invisible’ to us, even if they are directly overhead. This is also why they suddenly appear and just as suddenly disappear – as soon as the angle is wrong, you can no longer see the reflected light.’
Each Starlink satellite is about the size of a car and move in a very distinct line across the night sky.
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SpaceX is sending them up in batches of 60, with the most recent launch taking place in mid-March. The National Space Centre in Leicester said each batch was deployed to an orbit about 180 miles above Earth and had moved to about 340 miles away.
People have reported seeing the satellites all across the country in London, Manchester and Leeds as well as across Europe.
Make sure you’re outside (or near a window) and looking up at 9.34 this evening. Look for the Plough constellation if you need to orientate yourself as the satellites should pass in front of it as they make their way across the heavens.
If you want to follow the movements of the satellites in real-time as they move around the world, you can do so with the Satflare online tracker right here.
MORE: How to see SpaceX’s Starlink satellites above your home tonight
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMicWh0dHBzOi8vbWV0cm8uY28udWsvMjAyMC8wNC8yMi9zdGFybGluay1zYXRlbGxpdGVzLXRyYWNrZXItZXhhY3QtdGltZS1zZWUtc3BhY2V4cy1zYXRlbGxpdGVzLXVrLXRvbmlnaHQtMTI1OTE3Mzkv0gF1aHR0cHM6Ly9tZXRyby5jby51ay8yMDIwLzA0LzIyL3N0YXJsaW5rLXNhdGVsbGl0ZXMtdHJhY2tlci1leGFjdC10aW1lLXNlZS1zcGFjZXhzLXNhdGVsbGl0ZXMtdWstdG9uaWdodC0xMjU5MTczOS9hbXAv?oc=5
2020-04-22 09:17:53Z
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