There’s A Reason You Might See A “Train Of Stars” in the Night Sky

Over Memorial Day weekend I was sitting at bonfire on a perfectly clear night when my wife and I noticed something in the sky we'd never seen before and couldn't explain.

On Saturday, May 26, at about 10:50 p.m., my wife looked up and said "What the heck, all those planes or stars are following each other!".  I looked up and sure enough, it literally looked like a train of 20+ stars all moving in a straight line with the one at the end appearing to be the largest and brightest.

I joked that it was Santa and his reindeer, but I had no idea what I was seeing.  I knew it wasn't a train of stars and it couldn't be airplanes, there were just too many.  Perhaps this was what we've seen in countless movies and alien spaceships were preparing their invasion.

A quick Google search provided the answer and made me feel very lucky to have randomly seen it.

According to Space.com:

On Thursday evening (May 23), SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The satellites are in good health and are the first of a planned 12,000-satellite megaconstellation to provide internet access to people on Earth.

The satellites, which are now orbiting at approximately 273 miles (440 km) above the Earth, are putting on a spectacular show for ground observers as they move across the night sky.

The video above wasn't filmed by me, but it's basically what we saw that night.  This cool sight will be available for a limited time as the satellites will spread out over time.

Click here for predicted times the Starlink satellites will be passing overhead.