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The final orbits are approved in advance by the government; there's no mystery. They are not visible to the naked eye in their final orbits because they are far
by modeless 6y ago
The final orbits are approved in advance by the government; there's no mystery. They are not visible to the naked eye in their final orbits because they are farther away and they maintain an orientation that allows their sunshade to reflect sunlight away from Earth instead of toward it.
- svara 6y agoThere's actually a good primary source for this cited in the article [0], stating: "However, at low elevations near twilight at intermediate latitudes (45°–55°, e.g., much of Europe) hundreds of satellites may be visible at once to naked-eye observers at dark sites." This is referring to Starlink's 12000 satellite constellation, so thousands absolutely is the order of magnitude we're talking about when (if) they go to the planned 30000 and when other companies do the same. [0] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ab8016 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ab8016
- modeless 6y agoThat was before SpaceX added sunshades to Starlink, which reduces their brightness in their final orbits to below the threshold for naked eye visibility. https://www.spacex.com/updates/starlink-update-04-28-2020/ https://www.spacex.com/updates/starlink-update-04-28-2020/
- valuearb 6y agoOnly at dusk and dawn, and not when they have visors.
- olleromam91 6y agoThat's good to know. Still, with tens of thousands of satellites planned (that's just SpaceX) and the need for them to de-orbit and then redeploy, I think there is going to be quite a few of these things visible at any given time.