Trails Made by Starlink Satellites
June 7th, 2019“Please note that the density of these satellites is significantly higher in the days after launch (as seen here) and also that the satellites will diminish in brightness as they reach their final orbital altitude.”
I would have added:
Please note that this is from 25 of the first batch of 60 satellites of a constellation that will eventually include approximately 12,000 satellites!
Also note that Starlink is only one of three (possibly five) low earth orbit satellite Interet provider constellations that are planned:
1) Starlink (Satellites already in orbit, target constellation size: 12,000)
2) OneWeb (Satellites already in orbit, target constellation size: 1972)
3) Amazon Project Kuiper (Planning, target constellation size: 3,236)
Others:
Via: International Astronomical Union:
An image of the NGC 5353/4 galaxy group made with a telescope at Lowell Observatory in Arizona, USA on the night of Saturday 25 May 2019. The diagonal lines running across the image are trails of reflected light left by more than 25 of the 60 recently launched Starlink satellites as they passed through the telescope’s field of view.
Although this image serves as an illustration of the impact of reflections from satellite constellations, please note that the density of these satellites is significantly higher in the days after launch (as seen here) and also that the satellites will diminish in brightness as they reach their final orbital altitude.
