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Recent sharp increase in satellite trails

Satellite
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Carlo Paschetto avatar
Carlo Paschetto avatar
Hi everyone,

over the past few days I’ve suddenly noticed — and it seems I’m not the only one — a sharp increase in satellite trails. With 3- to 5-minute exposures, over the course of two hours there’s barely a single frame that isn’t crossed by at least four or five trails, sometimes even more. They’re not necessarily parallel like when a Starlink train passes; more often they’re intersecting — but clearly left by satellites (unless we’ve been under meteor shower bombardment for days and I missed the memo).
Are you experiencing the same issue or does anyone know why this is happening? Was there a massive satellite launch recently?
Until a couple of weeks ago I’d get maybe three or four affected shots in an entire night — now it’s a total mess… smile

Ciao,
Carlo
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Francesco Meschia avatar
Francesco Meschia avatar
Starlinks form a train only for a couple of days after launch. After that, they gradually spread to their orbits, so they can produce the random trail you're observing.
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Bob Lockwood avatar
Bob Lockwood avatar
I see this topic come up from time to time and it always makes me wonder. I think it has a lot to do with your location and where the target is in the sky.

I recently did the Leo-Trio, 43 10-minute subs plus 21 two-minute subs, and just looked at all the subs. I counted a total of 11 satellites and 4 aircraft in 
the total 64 exposures. I've done images where I'll see 3 or 4 in a single exposure, it may have just been where I was pointing.
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Chris White- Overcast Observatory avatar
Chris White- Overcast Observatory avatar
I've never tossed a sub due to satellite trails. Never, ever.
ScottF avatar
ScottF avatar
When it occurs, is it shortly after sunset?
Carlo Paschetto avatar
Carlo Paschetto avatar
When it occurs, is it shortly after sunset?

I noticed that it happens mostly in the first one-two hours of darkness, then the phenomenon seems to diminish as the night goes on
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Carlo Paschetto avatar
Carlo Paschetto avatar
Chris White- Overcast Observatory:
I've never tossed a sub due to satellite trails. Never, ever.

Usually I don't either, but what I'm saying is that these last few nights I've had subs that look like real networks of trails. I'm not talking about the usual classic trail that happens every now and then, but a kind of satellite storm!
Carlo Paschetto avatar
Carlo Paschetto avatar
Bob Lockwood:
I see this topic come up from time to time and it always makes me wonder. I think it has a lot to do with your location and where the target is in the sky.

I recently did the Leo-Trio, 43 10-minute subs plus 21 two-minute subs, and just looked at all the subs. I counted a total of 11 satellites and 4 aircraft in 
the total 64 exposures. I've done images where I'll see 3 or 4 in a single exposure, it may have just been where I was pointing.

As I said in another answer, I am not talking about what is a normal phenomenon that obviously happens often, and that I normally manage in the integration phase. I am saying that in the last nights, regardless of the direction of observation and at the same (obviously) location (therefore from my normal observation position), especially in the early hours of the night, all my subs are massacred by a real network of totally anomalous trails. I am not talking about the usual classic trail that happens every now and then, but of a sort of satellite storm that goes on for at least an hour or two and that, as I said, I am not the only one to have noticed.
Bob Lockwood avatar
Bob Lockwood avatar
There was a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenburg on Monday that had another load of Starlinks. Over a few days after the launch, the satellites at the right time may look like a
 storm as they start to spread out. After about two weeks or so, they will be just like all the other Starlinks out there.
Chris White- Overcast Observatory avatar
Chris White- Overcast Observatory avatar
When I go really deep with an integration, I'm always amazed by the spider web of satellite trails in the rejection maps.  It's wild how much junk there is up there…

I wish I could curse starlink, but it's starlink that all my data is transferred through from my remote site.  :-)
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Daniel Cimbora avatar
Daniel Cimbora avatar
It almost seems target dependent.  Some targets seem plagued by satellite trails, other objects almost never.  Maybe related to the declination??

It is indeed very frustrating when imaging faint objects with very low signal – I generally reject subs with a satellite trail in or near the target, lest the trails not get removed in the WBPP process.  Sometimes I lose up to 1 sub in 10.  Maybe I'm rejecting unnecessarily, but I haven't taken the time to test.

Dan
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starpixels avatar
starpixels avatar
Starlink rollouts happen all the time, with something close to 7k in orbit now, another 12k planned within the next few years. I’ve definitely notified a lot more trails but even default WBPP settings seem to handle them well. Sometimes if you check your integration with the STF x2 boost button you can uncover a trace lurking under the background level so if you’re inclined you can adjust settings or remove the subframe but really I don’t bother unless it’s visible during normal viewing