Starlinks seen, with naked eyeballs, moving across the sky; Upcoming Starklink rocket launches; Perseverence Rover to land on Mars on Feb 18

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, this week's prediction by Heavens-Above, showed good observational opportunity of Starlinks in the OC area from 5:32 to 5:37 am, Feb 14.

All right people listen up!  I told many of you who I thought were ready to go outside as star gazers and yet, as of now, nobody reported seeing or photographing the satellites as they marched across the sky like little bright ants.  Maybe my email list was for those who are in the "don't wake me up so early in the morning camp", but your faithful servant was up and managed to get a few images as satellites one after another passed overhead.

The bright star, Spica, was used a a point to aim and focus the camera.  I was considering moving a little distance away because of the glare from a nearby streetlamp, but decided not to when I could visually see the satellites moving across the sky.

Starlinks satellites, 4 second, 28 mm, DSLR (Source: Palmia Observatory)

Here is another image where the glare from the streetlamp is more visible.  You can still see 8-10 satellites in the image.

More Starlinks satellites, 4 second, 28 mm, DSLR (Source: Palmia Observatory)

The exposure setting at 4-seconds makes it much easier to identify and count individual satellites.  The satellites are bright enough, this time as about mag 2,9, that they were readily visible in city lights viewing locations.  This also suggests that they are bright enough to turn on the DSLR movie mode and take a short video of the motion of the satellites.  It is worth a try!  Anybody have any luck in doing this?

Checking out the rocket launch schedule from Kennedy Space Center shows two upcoming Starlink launches on Feb 15 evening and on Feb 16 morning.  So, check the Heavens-Above observation prediction for your area and yes, get up early if you have to.  And if you don't have enough excitement already be sure to follow the scheduled landing of Perseverance on Mars on Feb 18. 

Upcoming Starlink launches and Perseverance landing (Source: Kennedy Space Center)

Until next time, here from our burrow, stay safe, as we recover more of our freedom,

Resident Astronomer George

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