Montecito Heights Health Club Flaring Satellite Train?

[Mick West]

Nice. I tried to catch you out by using a non-starlink TLE - the hundred or so brightest satellites - but it worked seamlessly!

Very cool. At the moment it's assuming everything acts like a Starlink in terms of flaring. I'll add in code to differentiate other things (esp ISS) later.

Was prompted by this. California, 2/15/2023 02:35 UTC is claimed time. But I'm not seeing Starlinks group like that then - although there is a train in that rough position.

Audio suggests Montecito Heights (Los Angeles)


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-aerYzE3nI

 

[flarkey]

yes that looks very much like a flaring train. It reminds me of the first flaring case in Jalisco, Mexico.

Thread 'Strange Lights in the Skies of Mexico - Sept 7th' https://www.metabunk.org/threads/strange-lights-in-the-skies-of-mexico-sept-7th.12638/


Source: https://youtu.be/6X4W6fKZLqw?si=yLM1emqFXGSLsARL

 

[flarkey]

Very cool. At the moment it's assuming everything acts like a Starlink in terms of flaring. I'll add in code to differentiate other things (esp ISS) later.

Was prompted by this. California, 2/15/2023 02:35 UTC is claimed time. But I'm not seeing Starlinks group like that then - although there is a train in that rough position.

Audio suggests Montecito Heights (Los Angeles)

​

Looks like this would have been the 5-4 Group launched a few days earlier

https://earthsky.org/spaceflight/spacex-starlink-launches-february-2023/

Starlink launches in February 2023
Starlink Group 6-1: February 27, 2023, 23:13 UTC (6:13 p.m. EST)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral, Florida | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 2-5: February 17, 2023, 19:12 UTC (11:12 a.m. PST)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Vandenberg SFB, California | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 5-4: February 12, 2023, 5:10 UTC (12:10 a.m. EST)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral, Florida | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 5-3: February 2, 2023, 7:58 UTC (2:58 a.m. EST)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Kennedy Space Center, Florida | SUCCESS

TLE file is attached.
Source: https://www.space-track.org/basicsp...AT_ID,EPOCH/format/3le/OBJECT_NAME/STARLINK~~

Video Location: Montecito Heights Health Club - looking pretty much due North.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.4521503,-122.6878595,3a,38y,24.16h,98.56t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sqkvSIjiMuNQRO7VhsFpWRg!2e0!6shttps://streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com/v1/thumbnail?panoid=qkvSIjiMuNQRO7VhsFpWRg&cb_client=maps_sv.tactile.gps&w=203&h=100&yaw=115.814255&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu



Edit: Hmm, The satellites launched as the Group 5-4 on 12 Feb 2023 are listed here: (https://www.n2yo.com/database/?m=02&d=12&y=2023#results) and the catalogue numbers dont appear in the TLE file I attached, presumably because they'd just been launched. I managed to find a prelaunch TLE for the g5-4 launch, now also attached, and that does place the train to the north of the witness location at the right time, but the altitude of the satellites doesnt match. Hmm.

 

[Mick West]

Edit: Hmm, The satellites launched as the Group 5-4 on 12 Feb 2023 are listed here: (https://www.n2yo.com/database/?m=02&d=12&y=2023#results) and the catalogue numbers dont appear in the TLE file I attached, presumably because they'd just been launched. I managed to find a prelaunch TLE for the g5-4 launch, now also attached, and that does place the train to the north of the witness location at the right time, but the altitude of the satellites doesnt match. Hmm.

You location there is San Francisco, not Los Angeles. Moving it down south improves things a bit, but I'm still not seeing a perfect match with stars.

Oh wait, I missed your geolocation!

I think the issue might be that Satellites in early deployment will quickly diverge from TLE projections, as they are being maneuvered.



The Video is on MUFON (128937), and it gives the time as

Encoded date

2023-02-15 02:39:30 UTC

But it's not clear that the time is, especially if the video was clipped a bit.