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Start time: the time and compass direction (north, south, east, west) that the satellites rise above your local horizon or emerge from the Earth's shadow (no longer illuminated by the Sun). Listen to Sirius Radio? Get your TV via satellite? It's just cool to see where it all comes from — outer space. For more on satellites, please see my companion blog on low-Earth orbiting satellites published last month. Disappears (end point): where the blue line ends (NE) They are not always directly overhead; some may reach their peak height closer to the horizon, in one area of the sky (like #10, peaking in the SSE sky ~45° up). FlightClub.io (paid) Here is a link to the viewing opportunities for the "Starlink Trail" after you've set your location. End point: the time and direction the satellites will enter into the Earth's shadow or set (like a sunset) below your local horizon.
Even though this belongs in this forum, I wonder if it's also appropriate to let people know in the Solar System Imaging or other forums. I know cross-posting isn't encouraged, but this forum has little traffic, and this is pretty big news. Start by setting your location here. (You can view Starlink without making an account, but I would recommend it so you can save a location for later use).Even if you need to speak to us regarding your issue, by using Sky.com first and following the journeys provided, you’ll resolve you’re issue much faster than if you called in the first instance. Many geosynchronous satellites shine between magnitudes 10–12, so you can spot them in telescopes as small as 4 inches. They're also easy to photograph. High ISOs and fast, low light lenses aren't necessary, just a camera capable of a several-minute-long time exposure — long enough for the stars to trail, so you can easily tell them apart from the satellites. Set your shutter speed to "B" and ISO at 400. You can hold the shutter button down with your finger, but a shutter release cable is much better and vibration-free. Use a 100–200-mm telephoto lens, focus sharply, and expose for 2–4 minutes. When you enlarge the image, you'll should see long trails and a line of pinpoint dots — satellites! This map shows the approximate location of the geosynchronous belt from latitude 42°N. When observing or taking photos, if one section of the belt has few geosats, move along the arc to look for others. From Earth, a satellite in geosychronous orbit appears to hover over one spot of the equator, matching Earth's rotation rate. To a ground observer, they appear almost motionless, but they're zipping along at 11,300 kph (7,000 mph) to keep up with Earth's spin. As of August 10, 2017, there were 447 active geosynchronous satellites in a ring around the planet with space remaining for about 1,400 more. On September 11th at 10:50 p.m. CDT, I made this 3-minute exposure of central Aquarius and captured 11 geosynchronous satellites. Nimiq-4 is a Canadian satellite for digital TV services. The XM-3 provides digital audio for cars and homes and TKSAT-1 is Bolivia's first communication satellite.
To illustrate this with one other example: this one shows the satellites coming from the northwest, going straight over your head, and toward the southeast. Starlink satellites will always be coming from the west and going east. (So NW->SE & SW->NE, never from the east.)Dozens of satellites are busy day and night, beaming your favorite TV and radio programs from more than 35,000 kilometers away. Here's how to tune into them. Geosynchronous satellites orbit at an altitude of approximately 35,786 km (22,236 miles) above Earth's equator. From this altitude, their orbital period matches Earth's rotation period and the satellites hover over the same spot. If you're not familiar with which way is north/south/east/west, grab a compass app on your phone's App Store/Google Play Store to assist. Otherwise, the details to note in these maps are: Calendars for the observers location for visible of satellite passes, occultations, conjunctions, eclipses, meteor showers, asteroids, Moon positions (Earth, Jupiter, Saturn), and comets as well as multiple religious calendars. One tip if you're using this method: if you do not see any upcoming passes, try selecting "All" instead of "visible only" and see if there are any within 20-30 minutes of your local sunset. For example, if your local sunset is 4:34pm (16:34) and it shows a pass at 4:55pm (16:55), it will be difficult to photograph the satellites because the sky is still so bright, but you should still be able to see them with your naked eye. CalSky.com (free) Hopefully, these aids can help any fellow aspiring space photographers locate their satellite specimens this week for practice. After all, this latest launch will be far from the only time you can attempt some Starlink sighting—SpaceX has said it wants to deploy a minimum of 800 satellites before offering commercial service in 2020 or 2021. And the only thing a few errant photographs of the sky will temporarily cost you is SD card space.
Of course, you'll need to know the location of the geosat belt from your latitude. Northern hemisphere skywatchers see the belt several degrees south of the celestial equator because of parallax. For instance, from my latitude of 47°N, the belt arcs across the southern sky at declination –7°, or about 36° high at the meridian. The table below will help you know where to look for your latitude; reverse the sign if you're observing from the southern hemisphere. Latitude If you make a point to look for geosats shortly before they enter or shortly after they leave the shadow, you might catch a flare, some of which are bright enough to see in binoculars and rarely, with the naked eye. Have you tried Sky Community? It's the place to talk to other customers and get help with your products. Go to Sky Community At this point in the week, you still have a few options to try to find SpaceX's satellites overhead in the skies. You're only going to be able to see them ~30 minutes or earlier before sunrise, ~30 minutes or later after sunset, or at night when the sky is dark enough or the Sun is below your local horizon yet still illuminating these devices, since they are at a much higher altitude. Assuming geosats are in the field of view, they'll appear at first to drift to the east, until it dawns on you that no, the satellites are fixed and the stars are doing the moving, dragged across the field by Earth's rotation. Your instinct is to push the scope along to follow the satellites, but no need. They're not going anywhere. The other night I centered my 10-inch on a spot near Theta (θ) Aquarii and within a minute swept up four geosats between magnitude 10–11 in a compact group about 12′ across.
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