WTF did I just see in the sky?

[105.4]

I just popped outside for my last cigarette before bed, looked up in the sky to see a satellite / ISS passing overhead, closely followed by a long string of lights.

At first I thought it was a contrail from a plane illuminated by the moon, but as it got closer I noticed it was a very long string of lights very, very high up, moving in a southerly direction over the South Yorkshire / North Derbyshire / Nottinghamshire border.

Sorry for the rubbish photos, but they were taken on my iPhone and I’m not David Bailey.





Any ideas from those more knowledgeable than myself?

[HughG]

Starlink satellites gradually disperse after deployment, there was a launch late Saturday night so might be them?

[Terminator X]

EM's planned grid of satellites taking shape?

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-elon-musk-4200...

TX.

[Skyrocket21]

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

[105.4]

Hugh, Terminator & Skyrocket, thank you all. I didn’t know about that. Every day is a school day

[hammo19]

I still think EM is a Bond villain

[Eric Mc]

I saw the top stage of the Falcon 9 that launched them pass overhead about 20 minutes after launch.

Those of us interested in such matters post regularly in the "Science" forum. It's a good place to go to keep up to date on launches.

[105.4]

Eric Mc said:

I saw the top stage of the Falcon 9 that launched them pass overhead about 20 minutes after launch.

Those of us interested in such matters post regularly in the "Science" forum. It's a good place to go to keep up to date on launches.

Thanks Eric.

In my first photo, the blurred, (long) object in the upper left corner following a similar track to the strings of satellites, is that likely to have been the rocket itself?

At first I thought it was the ISS passing overhead, but it wasn’t as bright or as large as the ISS usually is.

[Eric Mc]

Pretty sure that the brighter object is the upper stage. The upper stage contains a gantry to which the 60 odd satellites are attached. As the rocket travels along in its orbit, it releases a pair of satellites at a time. It's quite interesting to watch.

Here's the gantry -



Deployment -

[105.4]

Eric Mc said:

Pretty sure that the brighter object is the upper stage. The upper stage contains a gantry to which the 60 odd satellites are attached. As the rocket travels along in its orbit, it releases a pair of satellites at a time. It's quite interesting to watch.

Thanks Eric.

Yeah, it was very interesting to watch. I think I was lucky enough to catch pretty much the entire show. I’d estimate that only a few had been released when it popped into view.

[Eric Mc]

They usually start releasing fairly early on. I was luck to watch a top stage pass over in July 2019 - on its first pass - and already I could see about four deployed satellites - and that was only 25 minutes after launch. By the time one whole orbit has been achieved (90 minutes) virtually all of the Starlink satellites will have been released. It ends up looking like this -



Over the course of a few days, the satellites spread out so you have a trail well over 100 miles long.

[105.4]

Eric Mc said:

They usually start releasing fairly early on. I was luck to watch a top stage pass over in July 2019 - on its first pass - and already I could see about four deployed satellites - and that was only 25 minutes after launch. By the time one whole orbit has been achieved (90 minutes) virtually all of the Starlink satellites will have been released. It ends up looking like this -



Over the course of a few days, the satellites spread out so you have a trail well over 100 miles long.

The photo you’ve just posted, that was exactly what I saw.

Ignorant as I am, not knowing what they were was a strange sight.

[normalbloke]

How many are in orbit now? I lost a bit of interest after following a few launches early on.

[Tony1963]

This is fun

https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/

[Vipers]

1701

[105.4]

Tony1963 said:

This is fun

https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/

Thanks for the link Tony. We’re fortunate to live in an area with low light pollution.

[Leithen]

normalbloke said:

How many are in orbit now? I lost a bit of interest after following a few launches early on.

https://satellitemap.space

Go into settings on this page and select rings for coverage.

[Eric Mc]

Some of the early batches have already re-entered.

[105.4]

Eric Mc said:

Some of the early batches have already re-entered.

Any idea why that would be Eric?

[Eric Mc]

They are in quite low orbits so have a fairly short orbital life. This system needs to be replenished on a regular basis.