Starlink Sats, Brisbane/Gold Coast 6 Dec

[ChrLzs 22,691]

For Brisbane/Gold Coasters, I've just got some info regarding the Starlink satellites being naked eye visible this evening, Fri 6 December.

There's a huge chain (chains?) of them, and according to my initial search, they will range from mag 3 down to about mag 5.5 - that means they won't be really bright, but should be visible to moderately dark adapted eyes...  And because there's a lot of them, it might be worth getting out there...

OK, so for the Brisbane region they will begin appearing at about 7:45pm, low in the SSW.  They will head upwards and towards South and then to the SouthEast, and they will get up to about 60 degrees above the horizon (that's about 6 fist-widths above the horizon).  They will be at their brightest and most elevated at about 8:00 to 8:10, and it looks like two sets at different angles will pass by, so just keep scanning the sky in the SW to SE and you may see more of them, up to about 8:40pm.

Try and find an area away or sheltered from city lights, if possible...  I might even drag my camera out and see if I can nail some of them..

 

If you'd like to see the VERY long list of visible sats, and all the timings and magnitudes, go to:

https://www.heavens-above.com/

Then 'Change Your Location' (the Lat Lon must be correct, but you can type in a large town or city name and it will find you).  Then click on "Starlink - all objects from second launch" and you'll get a full page of all the sat's...

 

I may be back with further info...  I'm in two minds about these things - I want to see them, but I also don't want the sky to be too polluted with human-made crap...

Edited December 6, 2019 by ChrLzs

[The Eternal Flame 603]

14 minutes ago, ChrLzs said:

I may be back with further info...  I'm in two minds about these things - I want to see them, but I also don't want the sky to be too polluted with human-made crap...

One night i saw a satellite moving in the sky like usual but wow it flashed and disappear, i had an astronomy book that mentioned that kind hi-tech satellite who reflect sun made partially with mirror if you are willing to see one one day.

Edited December 6, 2019 by The Eternal Flame

[The Eternal Flame 603]

36 minutes ago, ChrLzs said:

For Brisbane/Gold Coasters

 Hi so you are from australia they is alot of wildfire there?

Edited December 6, 2019 by The Eternal Flame

[ChrLzs 22,691]

30 minutes ago, The Eternal Flame said:

One night i saw a satellite moving in the sky like usual but wow it flashed and disappear, i had an astronomy book that mentioned that kind hi-tech satellite who reflect sun made partially with mirror if you are willing to see one one day.

They're called Iridium flares, and yes, I'm willing to see one..   Here's a picture I took a few years back:

and yes, we're having a lot of problems with wildfires at the moment, after a very dry spell in most states.  Some amazing footage here:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2019/dec/06/nsw-fires-qld-bushfires-queensland-australia-new-south-wales-rural-fire-live-news-latest-updates-sydney-smoke

Absolutely terrifying.

[ChrLzs 22,691]

Due to the incredible amount of smoke in the atmosphere, I could barely see the moon, let alone any magnitude 3 satellites..!!  Sorry if I raised anyone's hopes - I'll try to reraise this later when our skies are a little clearer....

[The Eternal Flame 603]

The picture you took few years back can you name all the stars in it? You could with a computer write the name of eatch of those stars its just an idea i get its a very nice picture thanks for sharing it, merry holidays from Canada!  

[ChrLzs 22,691]

For me, naming those stars is easy - I live 'down under' so our view of the heavens is southerly, of course.  So in that shot the most notable constellations are the Southern Cross (Crux) just above and right of the satellite trail and the two bright stars just below are the 'Pointers' (Hadar and Rigil Kentaurus, both part of Centaurus).

If you download the wonderful (free for PC) program Stellarium, you can quickly identify anything from any date/time and location - here's a screenshot showing that bit of sky as it looked on that date, all labelled:

Edited December 11, 2019 by ChrLzs