How to see deployed Starlink "Racetrack" flares

[Ravi]

Good stuff @flarkey, thanks for the effort!

 

[flarkey]

@Mick West has written an article summarising the full Starlink-UAP saga.....

The Great Starlink Racetrack UFO Flap of 2022

In the late summer of 2022, a new flap began. Commercial airline pilots flying at night started seeing lights in the sky from inside their darkened cockpits. These were like nothing they had seen before. The lights seemed very far away, possibly in space, and the pilots described them as moving in “racetrack” patterns due to the way they brightened then dimmed like planes flying in a racetrack-shaped circuit with their landing lights on.

The pilots were adamant that what they were looking at were not satellites and, more specifically, that they were not Starlink satellites. They knew this because they had seen Starlink satellites, and this looked nothing like what they had seen.

The pilots were not entirely wrong. Starlink is a constellation of thousands of low-orbit satellites that are designed to provide internet connections to remote areas. The satellites are launched in groups of fifty or more, and the groups are deployed all at the same time. For a time, before they reach their final orbits, the satellites circle Earth in a “train” that, from the ground and illuminated by the sun, looks like a long string (or train) of bright lights (see Figure 2).

Full article: https://skepticalinquirer.org/2023/02/the-great-starlink-racetrack-ufo-flap-of-2022/

 

[Mick West]

@Mick West has written an article summarising the full Starlink-UAP saga.....

The Great Starlink Racetrack UFO Flap of 2022

Yeah, I actually wrote it early December. That's an issue with paper publications, long lead-times mean it's not always the most up-to-date take.

 

[flarkey]

A nice example of Starlink flares seen in Maryland recently has been posted on Reddit...

https://v.redd.it/wjs2dv3gc5sa1

Updating to share a few more videos I received from my mom. These were taken between 2:48 and 3:02am Tuesday (apologies i misheard her in my original post) according to the data on the videos. I can definitely see this being satellite glares, but it also is interesting that there was a pilot who described something similar in the skies a few hundred miles south in NC around the same time.

Source: https://imgur.com/a/j79G24b

 

[captancourgette]

My initial reaction is surely thats too early for the satellites to be catching the sun?
Nearly 4 hours before sunrise, as they don't orbit that high.
Maybe other satellites?
Or I could just be wrong

 

[Easy Muffin]

My initial reaction is surely thats too early for the satellites to be catching the sun?
Nearly 4 hours before sunrise, as they don't orbit that high.
Maybe other satellites?
Or I could just be wrong

No, that time is when the sun's at the right elevation this time of year in MD. As we get closer to summer the right viewing conditions move towards the middle of the night and in a few weeks' time the sun will never be low enough at that latitude for the sats to become visible at all. I guess people there will then habe to wait until mid August or so before it'll be possible to see them again.

 

[captancourgette]

Are you sure?
I checked here, and between 2:45 and 3am seems a lot earlier than possible viewing times in maryland
https://findstarlink.com/#4361831;3
Or am I understanding this wrong?

 

[flarkey]

Are you sure?
I checked here, and between 2:45 and 3am seems a lot earlier than possible viewing times in maryland
https://findstarlink.com/#4361831;3
Or am I understanding this wrong?

The findstarlink.com website only really deals with the Starlink trains that go overhead. The ones that have been seen here are very low to the horizon, maybe only 5° above. The sun should be around 40° below the horizon and in the direction that the flares were seen, in this case NW (I think).

 

[flarkey]

Starlink flares seen from Texas...

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/12g4pkl/compilation_of_uaps_captured_near_friona_tx_march/

wanted to send some videos i took before heading into work while riding passenger. these lights had been showing up before since the 22nd of March at around 4:20AM (no pun intended). finally on Monday (27th) morning I decided to keep my phone camera recording constantly to see if i could capture the same lights that had appeared before and sure enough they did and even disappeared shortly after, then repeated it 4 times. They preferably like to show up near a meat processing plant called Cargill Meat Solutions near Friona TX on highway 60 and it seems like it adores the attention of drivers too.

Source: https://youtu.be/2z9sIw5GFWU

Sun position and direction is as we'd expect for Starlink Flares.
https://www.suncalc.org/#/34.5861,-102.7928,10/2023.03.22/04:25/1/3

 

[flarkey]

Some great videos of Starlink Flares (reported as Ractrack UAPs) recorded recently (April 2023) from Paradise, California. So @Mick West thats not too far from Sacramento, you should be able to see them now .

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyMr1-8pZJc


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qocOcsyDLQ


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQIKBQ5eDEA


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ5-mrTB3Ng

 

[flarkey]

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/12q3dw1/captured_on_041223_1020pm_est_near_detroit/


An intitial check of the sun & starcharts suggest that this is is outside of the expected parameters for Starlink Flares. The sun was only 22 degrees below the horizon and , assuming that the star is part of the Orion constellation (possibly the star Saiph). it was not directly below the anomalous lights. I've asked the OP on reddit for clarification on the location & Time.

 

[flarkey]

Another one from North Carolina

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/136cse1/chatham_county_nc_law_enforcement_watch_lights/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

 

[FatPhil]

Another one from North Carolina

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/136cse1/chatham_county_nc_law_enforcement_watch_lights/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

If what they're looking at is over Fearrington and Sanford is behind them (both mentioned in the first 60 seconds), then there's a good chance they're looking NNE more than E.

 

[flarkey]

If what they're looking at is over Fearrington and Sanford is behind them (both mentioned in the first 60 seconds), then there's a good chance they're looking NNE more than E.

Mapped for reference.



They talk of two helicopters, a UNC (Univeristy of North Carolina Hosptial) over Fearrington at 2200ft and an AirLife at 2800 ft coming up from Sanford. Checking FlightRadar24 that suggest the time of the video is approx 06:05 AM

 

[flarkey]

Fox News published a story back in February saying that The National Weather Service have captured a video of a "swarm of meteors" towards the east at dawn in Kansas. Looks more like deployed starlink flares to me. Maybe they didn't realise the video was a timelapse?

https://www.foxnews.com/us/kansas-night-sky-lit-small-swarm-meteors

Kansas night sky lit up by 'small swarm of meteors'

The National Weather Service's Goodland office captured video of meteors lighting up the night sky on Sunday.

Video shows several streaking lights low on the horizon in the early hours of Sunday morning. A small swarm of meteors burned up as they traveled through Earth's atmosphere near Goodland, Kansas, early Sunday morning. (National Weather Service Goodland)

The National Weather Service captured the video with an eastern-facing camera in Goodland, a small town in northwestern Kansas. Roughly 48.5 tons of meteoritic material strikes Earth every day, almost all of it vaporizing as it travels through the atmosphere and creating "shooting stars," according to NASA.

The meteorites that do make it to Earth's surface go unnoticed for the most part, but occasionally they strike in an inhabited area close to humans. Several meteors were captured by a camera at the National Weather Service's Goodland office. (National Weather Service Goodland)

Earlier this week, a nearly 1000-pound meteorite measuring two feet wide crashed near McAllen, Texas.

This is the source of the video - the NWS Goodland (Kansas) Twitter account...

Source: https://twitter.com/NWSGoodland/status/1627298976893661184?s=20