30 strong convoy of high altitude aircraft just passed overhead

Don't know what happened. Was the prediction a dud? I had a perfect view but only saw 6 sats in a 30 minute window

heavens-above predicted 45 or so at magnitude 2 which would have been easily visible.

Shakey_jake wrote: »

When can i see this? sorry total novice here

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

This will take your location and create a simulation of the viewing using Google street view. List of sightings down the left side

Seen three in a row but seem to be miles apart, hoping for better then that.

dkd21 wrote: »

Did anybody else view satelites in a perpendicular trajectory to the starlink ones ? Coming from the SE. I didnt have a live map but they could be observed easily at high elevation , so just wondering what those were ?

Yes I am pretty sure I saw something perpendicular also. Very faint however, as were the Starlink satellites.

I saw it last night: 22.35, Co Cork. Not at all what I'd expected.
One single small light that seemed very high and travelling fast, West to East and passed almost overhead. Visible for approx 1minute I'd say but clouds and trees obstructed view.

Starlink's Description:
10:33 pm (or 30min before), 21 Apr 2020
Starlink-5,6 OLD, DIM (2.7) for 6 mins
Look from WEST (265°) to EAST (74°)
Elevation (from horizon): start: 10°, max: 76°, end: 25°

So what was it - a single satellite?

fryup wrote: »

^^^^^^^^^^^

really and will we see it fly over irish skies?

They are in an inclined orbit, similar to the ISS. So you only see them when the trajectory takes them close to Ireland and its within an hour or two the right side of sunset or sunrise so they are lit by the Sun. But obviously there are a lot more of them so it happens more often than the ISS. Over time they disperse along the orbital track and move to higher orbits, so only the latest, lowest, tightly bunched lot seem to be worth looking for. Don't know if anyone will have predictions for today's Starlink 6 until after the launch. There's probably some uncertainty in the orbit achieved.

Inclined orbit, Earth rotates underneath:



On a 2D projection it looks like a sinusoid with each orbit passing over a different location:



Starlink has a similar orbital inclination to the ISS (53° vs. 51.6°). That takes it close to Ireland whenever it flies over Florida, which would be good for a launch like tonight except the satellites don't deploy until after it has passed by us. The next pass is then around 10.15pm (assuming on-time launch at 8.30). That's fine from a sunlight point of view but no idea if they'll be anywhere near Ireland on that pass.

EDIT: Speak of the devil, this site is predicting that the launch vehicle will be visible over the British Isles on first pass around 20:58 IST, but that the sats won't have deployed/dispersed. The second pass is a few hundred kilometres below our south coast so I'm guessing too low down / nothing much to see. Then as far as I can see there's nothing for a few days. I could be wrong.

Tonights one was supposed to be extra bright according to the tracker:

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

but I saw even less than the other night even with perfect conditions, not worth bothering with anymore I dont think, Ill stick with the ISS flyovers.

Most of the trackers, including heavens-above, seem to be unreliable for the earlier launches. It seems to me that they are not allowing for the migration of the satellites along their track as they are still predicting trains which just don't happen. Starlink 6 is up on heavens-above now but it looks like there are no appearances for Dublin until early morning May 26th, and the first evening/night appearances are June 6th. Given that's six weeks away, will the sats still be bunched at that stage?

Synode wrote: »

There's no drop down box launch on android app

I've found the app fairly rubbish. Check the website where its easier to see trains bunched together by time. But may be unreliable for launches other than Starlink 6 which has no visible appearances for the next few weeks. The previous launches seem to have spread out. That said, I'm seeing comments on youtube from people in the UK who have seen trains from the other launches in the last few days, so I'm confused.

how about that asteroid will it be visible from irish skies?

^^ were they bright?

Sounds similar to the stragglers I saw last week -- passed through Leo near Regulus and Algieba (α and γ Leonis) and were about as bright as the latter, i.e. magnitude 2.