If you’re a fan of stargazing, make sure you mark tonight off in your diary.
This evening, Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite fleet is set to make an appearance over the UK.
They form a constellation of thousands of satellites, and are designed to provide low-cost broadband internet service from low Earth orbit.
The satellites have been visible all week, with reports of sightings across the UK, including from Guilford, Leeds and High Cross.
Tonight, the satellites are expected to be visible at around 20:54pm.
While your location will alter how visible Starlink is, most viewers across the UK should be able to see it.
(Image: @GucciGazza/Twitter)
However, if you miss the viewing, thankfully there are several other chances for you to see the satellites from the UK this week.
Here’s a round-up of the best times to see the Starlink satellites this week, as well as how to track them through the night sky.
What time can you see the Starlink satellite display this week?
There will be several opportunities for you to see the Starlink satellites from the UK this week.
The satellites will be visible at:
8:54 pm, 23 Apr 2020
3:40 am, 24 Apr 2020
9:10 pm, 24 Apr 2020
10:46 pm, 24 Apr 2020
4:15 am, 25 Apr 2020
How to track the Starlink satellites
If you want to track the satellites in real-time, you can visit the Find Starlink website.
The site allows you to view the satellites’ location in real-time on a map, or input your location to see exactly when the satellites will be visible from your home.
Results are filtered based on how bright the satellites will be, so make sure you’re looking at those listed as ‘Bright’.
(Image: SpaceX)
What are the Starlink satellites?
Elon Musk hopes the satellites will bring low-cost internet to remote areas on Earth.
Starlink explained: “With performance that far surpasses that of traditional satellite internet, and a global network unbounded by ground infrastructure limitations, Starlink will deliver high speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.”
However, several astronomers have raised concerns that one of the satellites could pass in front of a telescope and obscure an image.
In a recent study, published in arXiv, researchers led by Stefano Gallozzi, wrote: “Depending on their altitude and surface reflectivity, their contribution to the sky brightness is not negligible for professional ground based observations.
“With the huge amount of about 50,000 new artificial satellites for telecommunications planned to be launched in Medium and Low Earth Orbit, the mean density of artificial objects will be of >1 satellite for square sky degree; this will inevitably harm professional astronomical images.”
Have you seen the Starlink satellites? Send your photos to shivali.best@reachplc.com
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