April 26, 2020 – Washington Co., WI – View the Starlink Satellite Train tonight, April 26, 2020, after 9:09 p.m. in the Midwest. And possibly see a bunch more satellites following the same line up until about 9:23 p.m.
On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket into space that released the 7th group of 60 satellites into low earth orbit as part of a satellite constellation that will allow internet access to everyone everywhere on Earth. Being only four days past the launch, the satellites are all extremely close together in relation to each other and will be able to be viewed as a tight line of satellites all in orbit on the same line.
THIS WILL BE A VERY RARE SIGHT TONIGHT, as not only will they slowly spread out from each other over time, but Elon Musk will soon be adjusting the angles of the solar panels and adding a “sunshade” to help reduce the reflection of the sun back to earth, making them harder to view in the near future, so TONIGHT is a great time to see such a rare astronomical event.
HOW TO VIEW: The StarLink satellite train will follow a path much like the YELLOW LINE in the radar pic, depending on where you are at in the Midwest. Any times, elevations, or trajectories are based on a West Bend, WI location, and other locations in the Midwest will be slightly different, but not much. The satellite train will start out low on the horizon in the Western sky near the waxing crescent moon and Venus (our brightest object in the sky besides the moon), and will start sometime around 9:09 pm central. It’ll rise to a max elevation of about 39.5° (see diagram in pic 4) when it is closest to us to the Southwest where the yellow dot is on the yellow line in the radar pic 2. The satellite train will fade away into the southern sky.
There may be many satellites to view after the main satellite train goes by, as they slowly are spread out over time, so that’s why viewing them now is a great time to see them. All of the satellites from this latest launch will be following the same line, so keep watching for more after the main satellite train goes by.
The trailing satellite of this 7th group (StarLink 6) is set to go past by 9:23 pm central, so that should be the latest you’ll be able to see the satellites in the sky.
Make sure you AT LEAST have a good view with no trees to your Southwest sky, as that will be when it’ll be the closest, brightest, and highest in the sky to us, but also make sure there are no trees to the west or south to see the whole path. Also, to see the satellite train at its brightest, you can darken the skies by getting away from light pollution by driving out into the country and away from cities and lights. You will be able to see this tonight with the naked eye, and videos and photos will most likely be able to be captured.
CLICK ON THIS LINK TO LIVE GPS TRACK THE STARLINK SATELLITE TRAIN:
http://www.satflare.com/track.asp?q=StarLinkLaunch#TOP
Otherwise, I also use a satellite tracker app called ISS Detector by RunaR, but I paid a few dollars to get the ISS Detector “PRO” app which can actually track “famous objects,” and you can live GPS track the StarLink leading and trailing satellites of each launch. You would have to pay for the PRO app to track it. This may get confusing, but it’s the basics on how you have to set up the PRO app to get the StarLink 6 satellite data:
First, set your location. Then go to the filters in the top right-hand corner that looks like 3 lines getting smaller, make sure the “famous objects” option is on, change the satellites “StarLink 6 Leader” and “StarLink 6 Trailer” to “visible”, and set the minimum elevation, threshold magnitude, and minimum quality all to “ALL”, and then back out using the top left arrow back. It’ll recalculate and you will be able to get all of the accurate info like in pics 2 and 3.
This is a rare celestial sight that could be amazing and memorable to the many who haven’t seen a StarLink satellite train yet. The weather should be very favorable tonight in the Midwest. You can’t always be notified of when it’ll happen, and many times the weather won’t allow you to see it as it passes over our area.
Photo courtesy YouTube
Saw the satellite string in Kohler around 9:10 this evening. Beautiful!
Hi Judy,
I was out for awalk with my wife. We saw this in Central Kentucky. Beautiful. Amazing. I knew what it was right away. It was a wonderful surprise.
Accidentally saw these tonight close to Kansas City, MO while walking my dogs. What an amazing sight! Had no clue what they were. The night sky tonight was extraordinarily gorgeous here.
My wife and I saw this as we arrived home. We were not aware of this and were just in the right place at the right time.
I must say, it felt very special and significant at the time. Understanding what it was takes some of the mystique out of the moment, but we’ve are glad you wrote this article.
We never knew you could see man made satellites so clearly.
I live in West Virginia and I was sitting outside visiting my friends and happen to look up in the sky tonight at approximately 9:20 PM EST. What I saw was very mysterious and really one of the craziest moments of my life. Im glad I could have witnessed them passing.
I then searched google for current passing satellites to try and figure out what had happened and came across this article. Very interesting.
Elon, I Musk ask, how did you do it??
Couldn’t believe my eyes… my whole Family got to see it off our back deck. We turned out the lights and saw the neatest and craziest life event ever. WOW
My husband and I saw this awesome phenomenon on Monday night in Gladstone Missouri from our deck.
We feel fortunate to have witnessed this despite freaking out before we knew it what it was.
have tried to see it since to no avail.
My supervisor and my self witnessed this same star Link ordeal last night 6-19-2020, at around 4:20-4:30am it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in the sky in my life.. I was super excited about it… Reading these other people’s comments made me happy to know that others got to witness the same ordeal… Right place right time… Priceless, and truly blessed to have seen this…
Our experience was in Tecumseh MI,