Sitrec Night Sky and Starlink Development

[Mick West]

I've tried this a few times recently, but there doesn't seem to be any change in the satellite positions after clicking "Update Starlink TLE for Date" even for dates far in the past (in excess of 1 year). Is it still working?

Dang, it seems like I neglected to upload the configuration file.

It works now!

 

[Mick West]

I might have to start adding Qianfan – the Chinese version of Starlink.

Article:

Amateur astronomers have shown that the first satellites of the Chinese Qianfan ("Thousand Sails") constellation are bright enough to be seen naked-eye.

Launch of the first Qianfan satellites from Taiyuan spaceport in northern China.
Ourspace
Shanghai SatCom Satellite Technology launched the first 18 spacecraft of their Qianfan megaconstellation in early August. Qianfan means Thousand Sails and it will add 14,000 new communication satellites to the already crowded space in low-Earth orbit. Two more Chinese mega-constellations are planned to follow Qianfan.

The Thousand Sails spacecraft are in polar orbits inclined 89° to Earth's equator at altitudes near 800 kilometers (500 miles). That height is above the Starlink satellites, operated by SpaceX, and below those of the OneWeb constellation from Eutelsat.

Source: https://skyandtelescope.org/uncategorized/observers-report-first-views-of-the-chinese-thousand-sails-satellites/

Although I'm not adding Eutelsat either. I wonder if the flaring criteria might be different. Is this "horizon flare" just a Starlink thing?

 

[flarkey]

I might have to start adding Qianfan – the Chinese version of Starlink.

Although I'm not adding Eutelsat either. I wonder if the flaring criteria might be different. Is this "horizon flare" just a Starlink thing?

a higher orbit would necessitate a more acute reflection angle to direct the flare, so maybe closer to the geometry of Iridium flares..? If so they could be much more visible, and probably not close to the horizon.

Article:

What makes the Iridium satellites uniquely interesting for observers in every country is that their orbits are all tilted 86° to the equator. This means that under the proper conditions, flares can be seen from practically anywhere on a fairly frequent basis.

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576502001273

The Qianfan satellites look like a big mirror!

 

[JMartJr]

Are we approaching the point where there are so many of these things that there is always going to be one pretty much anywhere in the sky you can point to? Is the software in danger of getting overwhelmed by the masses of data on masses of satellites? Just curious, I know there are a lot of them but I also know that computers now can handle a lot of data. Just not sure if the two "a lot ofs" are approaching a similar order of magnitude...

 

[flarkey]

Are we approaching the point where there are so many of these things that there is always going to be one pretty much anywhere in the sky you can point to? Is the software in danger of getting overwhelmed by the masses of data on masses of satellites? Just curious, I know there are a lot of them but I also know that computers now can handle a lot of data. Just not sure if the two "a lot ofs" are approaching a similar order of magnitude...

yes, kinda. There are Starlink satellites all over the sky (well, apart from above 53deg N & S), but the conditions under which they flare are very precise. So although they can potentially be occurring in around 10% of the earth's surface they will only be in a certain direction (towards the sun when it is 40 degs below the horizon) and in a certain part of the sky. This is why we can be so definitive when we get a witness video.

 

[flarkey]

NightSky Feature request: Add a toggle to view the Celestrak 100 or so Brightest satellites (Visual TLE) instead of Starlink TLE.

https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/gp.php?GROUP=visual&FORMAT=tle

 

[jarlrmai]

Maybe just have both toggleable?

 

[flarkey]

Feature request - Flare region to show in look view. This can then be used to identify the date on which Starlink swarm videos were taken.

Example....

 

[Mick West]

Feature request - Flare region to show in look view. This can then be used to identify the date on which Starlink swarm videos were taken.

Done!

 

[flarkey]

Bug - the 'update TLE for date' seems to be broken again.

 

[Mick West]

Bug - the 'update TLE for date' seems to be broken again.

I just tried it, and it worked for me. What date were you using?

Any errors in the Javascript console?

 

[flarkey]

I was trying for a date around May 24. Juss tried it - seems to be ok now in normal usage

However, when I create a permalink, change the date, and then try to Update TLEs for date, the TLEs dont load.

Screenshot before creating Permalink

Screenshot after creating permalink, change date then update TLEs....

 

[Mick West]

I was trying for a date around May 24. Juss tried it - seems to be ok now in normal usage

However, when I create a permalink, change the date, and then try to Update TLEs for date, the TLEs dont load.

This should be fixed now. The issue was actually the creation of the permalink was changing the path used to load some files from metabunk.org to metabunk.org/u and so giving file not found when trying to recreate the satellites (as it reloaded the PNG image used for the satellites). Fixed by using absolute paths.