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Comment by averageRoyalty | Hacker News Reader

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averageRoyalty·

Have you seen them in orbit?

I look at the sky regularly in a low light area and I've not seen any "pollution", but maybe I don't know how to look?

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Yes. They are only visible after launch, like a string of slow shooting stars or pac man food that lasts 3-4 minutes.

After they reach their target orbit they go into dark mode and you will never see them unless you operate like a top 10 in the world telescope.

I was walking my dog a few months ago right after dusk and randomly saw the starlink train, it was a linear constellation marching across the entire sky, from horizon to horizon, and lasted at least 2 minutes.

It was both amazing and disturbing.

The "train" is only visible for a week or two after launch. Once the satellites get to their operational orbits they are not visible. So you'll never see the thousands of satellites that are up there; they can't possibly ruin your view of the night sky.

I can spot the satellites (sometimes) if I look up at night, but it's not like I see anything more than a bunch of dim lights beaming across the sky. So I don't think that counts as light pollution

There are plenty of satellites visible to the naked eye, not just Starlink ones.

I remember as a kid (far before Starlink existed) that we'd always go stargazing when we were camping (far from any city light pollution). And the longer you'd watch, the more you would see 'stars move'.

The ISS is also very clearly visible. It's pretty wild to see it re-appear every 90 minutes or so. Insane to think how fast that thing is moving.

I have actually! At night you can see the "train" of satellites when the light reflects off them just at the right angle - it's like a long line of dots across the horizon. Of course that is nothing compared to what problems this is causing for astronomy.

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