4
$\begingroup$

Yesterday (27/3/2020), 20:00, I was on high ground in central Switzerland and looked south. in the clear night sky, I saw what I think could have been satellites: linear trajectory, high speed, fainter than appearing stars, no blinking.

However, there were a lot of objects; a whole sequence of equidistant points that kept going for as long as I looked (5-10 minutes, and they were all seemingly following the same trajectory.

Can anyone tell me what I saw?

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ I just saw them moving west to east here west of Vancouver Canada about 21.25 PDT following roughly 49 parallel trajectory. Almost all spaced equally. More than 20 for sure. Stefan $\endgroup$
    – user48375
    Commented Sep 19, 2022 at 4:31

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6
$\begingroup$

SpaceX has been launching Starlink satellites in large quantities and a recent launch may be the satellites you've seen. On release they have close spacing and slowly separate to the appropriate orbits.

According to the website, Heavens-Above, the most recent launch was Starlink 5 on 18 March 2020. The site describes the visible satellites as "string of pearls."

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ They can also be as bright as Rigel, even at 15 deg visual separation, and flash brighter than Venus for a second while they rise from the West (if the orientations are right), and the show can last an hour. Look for occasional side-by-side instead of single file. If they stay this bright after the whole system is up, we'll all be dizzy! $\endgroup$
    – amI
    Commented Mar 28, 2020 at 8:34
  • $\begingroup$ yupp they were pretty bright and indeed some were flying side by side along the trajectory $\endgroup$
    – mluerig
    Commented Mar 28, 2020 at 10:19

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.