We’ve been receiving calls into the WTOP newsroom reporting phenomena in the sky that people cannot explain. Listener: I looked out to the west from my driveway, and I saw what I thought at first were three stars perfectly lined up, but I knew they couldn’t be stars. And as I watched them, I realized that they were moving up, sort of not quite exactly straight up, but at a slight angle. And as they moved up, they faded out. So I know that those are satellites, and I saw at least six of these in a straight line, all perfectly aligned going up. So I wondered, why are they? Who’s putting up those satellites? I have never seen a whole bunch of satellites all in a perfect line.

Our listener described perfectly what a train of Space X Starlink satellites looks like, and this is a constellation of satellites that have been deployed around the world with more to come by. SpaceX to provide low cost internet and these training of star like satellites are usually seen shortly after a launch from a falcon nine where they’re deployed in orbit. I myself have imaged and seen at least 25 of them at once. So it’s common to see, but when people see it, Lynn, they go, Wow, what is that? Is that an X File?

And do you think these sightings are going to become even more common going forward?

Absolutely, because Starlink wants to put up 10,000 plus these satellites. Right now, there’s about 11,000 plus satellites in orbit around our planet that are active, and of that, over 8,000 of them are Starlink satellites. These are small. They weigh about a half a ton, but they do present a risk for orbital collisions, as well as polluting the nighttime sky for astronomers who are trying to take long exposures as part of their observing run. So it is something has to be addressed. And by the way, there’s more coming, because more people are getting into the satellite internet craze.

I saw online that if you want to see the satellites, they do have a tracker available.

People can get apps for their phones. Lynn, that can track satellites and the sky and so forth. And I highly recommend anyone that likes to look at the nighttime sky invest in a planetarium or a satellite tracker. They’re not expensive, easy to use, and they’re really quite fun to use.

What’s that in the sky? WTOP has the answers

We’ve been receiving calls into the WTOP Newsroom reporting phenomena in the skies that people can’t explain — but our space expert can.

This pic and video show a SpaceX Starlink train of satellites shortly after they were launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Seeing this in the night sky can get our attention, but now you know what they look like. This is a large group but they can be smaller in number.(Courtesy Greg Redfern)

Night time sky gazers can see meteors — bright and dim, airplanes, aurora, stars, planets and oh, yes, satellites. Lots of them. Smartphone apps are available to track and identify these moving star-like objects of which there are currently over 11,000, with Starlink being a good chunk of the total.

When SpaceX launches a new group of its Starlink satellites check here— it is very likely that they will be spotted as a group, or “train” going across the sky. They can really grab our attention when they do.

If you see something like this you can go to this website and check.

Thankfully, WTOP’s space expert joined us live Sunday night to break it down.

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Greg Redfern tells WTOP what exactly is going on in the night sky. (WTOP)

The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.

Linh Bui:
We’ve been receiving calls into the WTOP newsroom reporting phenomena in the sky that people cannot explain.

Listener: I looked out to the west from my driveway, and I saw what I thought at first were three stars perfectly lined up, but I knew they couldn’t be stars. And as I watched them, I realized that they were moving up, sort of not quite exactly straight up, but at a slight angle. And as they moved up, they faded out. So I know that those are satellites, and I saw at least six of these in a straight line, all perfectly aligned going up. So I wondered, why are they? Who’s putting up those satellites? I have never seen a whole bunch of satellites all in a perfect line.
Greg Redfern:
Our listener described perfectly what a train of Space X Starlink satellites looks like, and this is a constellation of satellites that have been deployed around the world with more to come by. SpaceX to provide low cost internet and these training of star like satellites are usually seen shortly after a launch from a falcon nine where they’re deployed in orbit. I myself have imaged and seen at least 25 of them at once. So it’s common to see, but when people see it, Lynn, they go, Wow, what is that? Is that an X File?

Linh Bui:
And do you think these sightings are going to become even more common going forward?
Greg Redfern:
Absolutely, because Starlink wants to put up 10,000 plus these satellites. Right now, there’s about 11,000 plus satellites in orbit around our planet that are active, and of that, over 8,000 of them are Starlink satellites. These are small. They weigh about a half a ton, but they do present a risk for orbital collisions, as well as polluting the nighttime sky for astronomers who are trying to take long exposures as part of their observing run. So it is something has to be addressed. And by the way, there’s more coming, because more people are getting into the satellite internet craze.

Linh Bui:
I saw online that if you want to see the satellites, they do have a tracker available.
Greg Redfern:
People can get apps for their phones. Lynn, that can track satellites and the sky and so forth. And I highly recommend anyone that likes to look at the nighttime sky invest in a planetarium or a satellite tracker. They’re not expensive, easy to use, and they’re really quite fun to use.

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