What was over Hampshire tonight?

[Deranged Rover]

Was out in the garden admiring the stars this evening at about 9:30pm and noticed a whole load of aircraft flying over. There must have been around 20-25 all flying in a perfectly straight line heading roughly North-East. Checked on Flightradar and apparently the skies over Hampshire were allegedly empty!

We’re in Hampshire not far from Winchester - any idea what we saw?

[i4got]

A line of Elon Musk satellites.

[chrisch77]

My neighbour sent me a message earlier about a load of Space X launched satellites being visible to the South this evening so could it have been that?

[Eric Mc]

A constellation of satellites. I've just been out looking at them. They are part of the Starlink programme. Each time there is a Starlink launch, approximately 60 small satellites are released into orbit. They are deployed in sequence which means they form a "train" of satellites in the sky. As the weeks progress, the train spreads out. Eventually, there will be 11,000 of these in orbit. They are designed to provide better internet coverage around the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink

[ChocolateFrog]

Starlink satellites.

[chrisch77]

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[anonymous-user]

Deranged Rover said:

Was out in the garden admiring the stars this evening at about 9:30pm and noticed a whole load of aircraft flying over. There must have been around 20-25 all flying in a perfectly straight line heading roughly North-East. Checked on Flightradar and apparently the skies over Hampshire were allegedly empty!

We’re in Hampshire not far from Winchester - any idea what we saw?

My wife saw something, we are in the same location, towards Romsey.

[Tempest_5]

Yep, saw those too from West Sussex. Starlink satellites.

I was actually about to test my knowledge of the constellations at the time and had a few seconds of thinking I was having a funny turn when a whole lot of stars started shifting at once.

[Steve_D]

I want to see these. will they be over at about the same time each evening or a different time or multiple times?
Thanks

Steve

[Shaw Tarse]

Steve_D said:

I want to see these. will they be over at about the same time each evening or a different time or multiple times?
Thanks

Steve

https://findstarlink.com/?fbclid=IwAR1tr-1FSyt11Vh...

[Deranged Rover]

See, I knew PH would have the answer!

Thanks all - very interesting.

[Eric Mc]

Steve_D said:

I want to see these. will they be over at about the same time each evening or a different time or multiple times?
Thanks

Steve

They should be crossing over again tonight.

Listings for overhead Farnborough Hants for tonight -

https://www.heavens-above.com/StarlinkLaunchPasses...

[Simpo Two]

ChocolateFrog said:

Starlink satellites.

I imagine some kind of orbiting conga party... were they wearing sombreros?

[joshleb]

I saw some whilst in Paraguay a few months ago and was convinced it was aliens until managed to get wi-fi again.

There's something very weird about seeing a perfectly straight convey moving across the sky!

[conkerman]

Simpo Two said:

I imagine some kind of orbiting conga party... were they wearing sombreros?

Lucky Pierre?

[hantsxlg]

I spotted these last night in north hampshire. Some visible to naked eye but easier to see with my 50x10 binos which pulled in more light nicely....