How to see deployed Starlink "Racetrack" flares

[NorCal Dave]

Just a positive note here. I noticed this post on the local Rants and Rave FB page. Just for background, this page usually has things like discussions about which Dollar store is better, or how to heat your home with a candle and ceramic bowl because it was on the internet. However, in this case someone posted what clearly looks like a Starlink train and to my surprise, almost all the comments said "Starlink"! A few people thought it might be the planetary alignment, as that was in the news, but most said it was Starlink. The only UFO/nefarious comments seemed to just be snarky jokes.

There's hope, at least with Starlink:

 

[Mick West]

However, in this case someone posted what clearly looks like a Starlink train and to my surprise, almost all the comments said "Starlink"! A few people thought it might be the planetary alignment, as that was in the news, but most said it was Starlink. The only UFO/nefarious comments seemed to just be snarky jokes.

That almost always happens with the trains. The general public has reached a kind of herd immunity where such misidentifications are identified almost immediately after posting.

Less so with the "racetrack" horizon flares, with only a small percentage of people familiar with them, you can get groups with no resistance at all, or just one or two replies in a longer thread that gets drowned out.

Unfortunately, I don't think it will change much with the flares, as it's kind of a difficult thing to see and record, and there's much greater variety in the visual interpretation.

 

[flarkey]

A nice Starlink flare video from New Zealand...


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1jzq7yh/strange_lights_waikato_new_zealand/


Sitrec confirms starlink flares - Permalink

 

[flarkey]

Star Destroyers!


Source: https://youtube.com/shorts/6n2mnAlk8Ms?si=kV8i00Pq4IWGm44P

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?si...68f86a569049f199cbb934a9dacc8.tle)~rhs~true)_

 

[DaveG]

This is an old video from October 17, 2023, but it reappeared on YouTube today, featuring Danny Jones sharing his three-day experience with Chris Bledsoe. An accompanying video shows them observing "orbs" from a beach in Clearwater, Florida. I'm having some difficulty pinpointing the exact time and position in the sky, but they resemble typical Starlink flares. After checking Sitrec, I found that there were flares near the western horizon a couple hours after sunset.


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH2a7fE9I6c



Source: https://x.com/chrisbledsoeufo/status/1877101394303365270

Its an (Orb) not a drone. October 2023 with Danny Jones and My daughter Emily in Clearwater Florida.I have been documenting this for years.We're just getting started!!

Source: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzubRnmrErx/

While visiting Emily in Clearwater Florida, we met up with our friend Danny Jones and his producer from Koncrete Podcast.
We had a beautiful skywatch on Indian rocks beach on the Gulf of Mexico.
We took several videos of orbs appearing and disappearing and even coming up from the water.
10/17/23

Anyone wanna try to find a match for this?

 

[JMartJr]

Is an (Orb) distinct from an orb? Asked with at least a trace of seriousness, as it may be some evolving bit of jargon that I don't know about...

 

[Ann K]

Is an (Orb) distinct from an orb? Asked with at least a trace of seriousness, as it may be some evolving bit of jargon that I don't know about...

I think it must stand for "Out-of-focus Round Ball".

 

[DaveG]

Continuing on with the Danny Jones Indian Rocks Beach sighting, I was able to identify the stars in the video. The bright star at the top is Beta Herculis, formally named Kornephoros. According to Danny Jones in a podcast, this sighting occurred roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours after they had dinner. As we can see, Starlink satellite flares appear on the horizon starting around 9:40 PM and continue until approximately 11:00 PM.

 

[flarkey]

On Tuesday the 26th of August 2025 around 9:15pm a group of us from the New Plymouth Astronomical society saw something that we'd never seen before - strange lights rising up in the sky in different directions, appearing and disappearing in an unusual way. Drones? Satellites? No one was sure.
So the next night (Wednesday the 27th) around the same time (from 9:05 to 9:15pm approx) I went back to the same location to see if it was happening again - and it was. I got this video of the phenomenon. The most likely explanation seems to be that they're satellites, although they're unusually bright and the number of them is quite surprising.
Note too the bright shooting star (meteor) towards the end of the video (right corner of screen).

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3WCtRnNT9w


Starlink flares would have been very visible towards the south west, and moving in the same trajectory as the 'weird lights'.

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=https://sitrec.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/15857/New Plymouth/20250922_085831.js

@Mick West - flare lines don't seem to be showing? Edit - ah just noticed there's a new check box for "sun angle arrows")

 

[flarkey]

Weird lights have been reported at night across Australia - and they look just like Starlink Flares...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...ightings-reported-across-midwest-wa/105803264

In short:

Strange lights have been sighted across WA's Midwest, from the coast to hundreds of kilometres inland, prompting widespread unidentified aerial phenomena speculation.

The Mid West Ports Authority has suggested the lights could be caused by ship light refraction.

But Perth Observatory says the sightings extend well beyond the ocean, with reports coming from far inland.

Video from Instagram...

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DO8W9zzD5MY/


So location is "Point Moore, 420 kilometres north of Perth" and "Bradley Plane said the objects, which they spotted on September 10, appeared to be moving in various formations." The exact time is unknown, but it was in the hours of darkness


Sitrec shows that Starlink satellite flares would have been visible towards the South West from around 8.30pm to 10pm. (Permalink)

 

[JMartJr]

ABC Perth might ask interview subjects to wear longer pants going forward -- I was concerned we might be about to catch a glimpse of more than a Starlink flashing at us...

 

[FatPhil]

ABC Perth might ask interview subjects to wear longer pants going forward -- I was concerned we might be about to catch a glimpse of more than a Starlink flashing at us...

Please, not another orb report!

 

[JimJam]

Weird lights have been reported at night across Australia - and they look just like Starlink Flares...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...ightings-reported-across-midwest-wa/105803264






Video from Instagram...
View attachment 84407


Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DO8W9zzD5MY/


So location is "Point Moore, 420 kilometres north of Perth" and "Bradley Plane said the objects, which they spotted on September 10, appeared to be moving in various formations." The exact time is unknown, but it was in the hours of darkness


Sitrec shows that Starlink satellite flares would have been visible towards the South West from around 8.30pm to 10pm. (Permalink)
View attachment 84409

I recently was in the South of NSW on a small shoot and being the nerd I am was looking at the sky when I saw a number of moving lights flaring before fading out to the South West. Because I've followed Mick and Metabunk for a while they instantly stood out to me as probably starlink, and I'm glad the tool exists to be able to confirm my suspicions now that I'm back home with a better internet connection.

A few of the people I was with were very used to seeing satellites going overhead and recognized that these seemed to move pretty fast and didn't behave like what they were used to, so it felt nice to have an explanation handy. I took some video, but I'm not sure if I'm seeing enough detail in it to exactly match the location and time of the video with sitrec, but getting in the ballpark area and time (Cooma NSW, between 2100-2200 AEST) matches what I saw to be essentially certain.

 

[MonkeeSage]

Astronaut Don Pettit posted a video of a starlink train seen from aboard the ISS. There are a bunch of other starlink sats flying by and several are flaring. I thought it was neat to see what flaring looks like from that vantage point.


Source: https://x.com/astro_Pettit/status/1975689151467938057

 

[flarkey]

Nice little video of what the Starlink Flares can look like currently from central USA around 10pm...


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1o71zzw/my_dad_is_a_semi_driver_and_saw_this_tonight/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

This is the sign: (Google StreetView location) looking 292° North West)

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...azonaws.com/15857/Colorado/20251015_122554.js

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...azonaws.com/15857/Colorado/20251015_122741.js

 

[flarkey]

Now Chris Bledsoe and his fans are seeing Starlink Flares and calling them Orbs. It was only a matter of time.


Source: https://youtu.be/JoN_aPn4HH8?t=1148

Here they all are on beside Access Boardwalk 4 on Wrightsville Beach, NC. (Streetview). 34.2260861,-77.7803139

That lady is Kory Moofo and she seems to be a bit of a Starlink Flare Fan. - just like me! (some really good footage in there @Creamy Pasta )


Source: https://youtu.be/AHo8dkhg0w4?t=241

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...zonaws.com/15857/KoryMoofo/20251016_075842.js

Edit: More here:


Source: https://x.com/ArrowOfArtemisX/status/1978661534285918258

 

[jarlrmai]

Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1oedmdn/spotted_in_edinburgh_scotland/


This one might be sync-able, location given vague time stamp but a also plane flies right through the flare zone

Time: 2315 22/10/25

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

For the last two nights, these lights have appeared over the gasworks in Cowdenbeath. My window looks out right across the Firth of Forth and can normally see the gasworks from here.

 

[flarkey]

Last night at 10.30pm as I was locking up before bed I looked out my front door I saw an unusual 'star' close to the horizon in the northwest. I noticed that it was moving, and then it disappeared. It was quickly followed by another, and another going in a different direction. "Weird" I thought, but I was pretty sure they were Starlink Flares. I've seen Starlink Flares from my location in the east of England before but not this early in the year. They normally only appear in December & January when the sun gets low enough to glint off the starlinks in the standard 53° inclined orbits. So why was I seeing them now ? A quick check in Sitrec shows that I probably saw STARLINK-5303 , STARLINK-5813 AND STARLINK-3095 which are all in 70° inclined orbits.

Article:

The majority of Starlink's operational 4,000 satellites lie within the 53° shell, which only covers parts of the globe (see fig. 2). The 70° and 97.6° orbits allow serving regions near the poles.

Source: https://labs.ripe.net/author/nitinder-mohan/a-multifaceted-look-at-starlink-performance-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/#:~:text=Starlink%20Network%20Operations%3A%20A%20Primer&text=The%20majority%20of%20Starlink%27s%20operational,shells%20however%20have%20fewer%20satellites.

This is my sighting, recreated in Sitrec.

 

[jarlrmai]

Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1oedmdn/spotted_in_edinburgh_scotland/


This one might be sync-able, location given vague time stamp but a also plane flies right through the flare zone

Time: 2315 22/10/25

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

For the last two nights, these lights have appeared over the gasworks in Cowdenbeath. My window looks out right across the Firth of Forth and can normally see the gasworks from here.

I downloaded the video and I think I synced it up

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=https://sitrec.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/11433/editburg reddit synced/20251024_080705.js

Not all flares show I think light pollutions and some clouds affect some of them, but several seem to match the video.. hard to know without proper metadata and a good location to sync the plane up correctly as it flies close and fast through the scene right to left.

 

[flarkey]

I downloaded the video and I think I synced it up

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=https://sitrec.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/11433/editburg reddit synced/20251024_080705.js

Not all flares show I think light pollutions and some clouds affect some of them, but several seem to match the video.. hard to know without proper metadata and a good location to sync the plane up correctly as it flies close and fast through the scene right to left.

Funnily enough STARLINK-33779 and STARLINK-3102 are both in 70° orbits too.

 

[jarlrmai]

My 1st IRL starlink sighting on a walk last night, not the flares but a spread out train moving apparently upwards

 

[flarkey]

View attachment 85809
My 1st IRL starlink sighting on a walk last night, not the flares but a spread out train moving apparently upwards

That train was also seen in Manchester:

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UK_Aliens_UAP/comments/1otnixe/not_aeroplanes_drones_anyone_have_a_more/

 

[jarlrmai]

I'll bite, because in this case I am also an experiencer who's opinion is sacrosanct as per UFO rules.

 

[Mick West]

thread closed
Please put each new event in a new Skydentify thread dedicated to that event.

This makes them a lot easier to find and avoids overlapping discussions.

If in doubt, always start a new thread.