Elon Musk’s space train perfectly over Poland. A fantastic spectacle

Elon Musk’s space train is actually dozens of communication satellites of the Starlink system (the billionaire’s SpaceX company), which, shortly after being put into orbit, line up perfectly one behind the other. From Earth we can then observe the passage of bright and clearly visible satellites flying single file.

Perfect Starlink flight to Poland. “Who knows when there will be another such a good opportunity”

Now the chance to see this spectacle will be unique, because Monday’s flight is to be particularly visible in almost all of Poland. The satellites were launched into the orbit of our planet on Monday morning, and in the evening they will pass directly over Poland. And twice.

The first opportunity for observation came just over an hour after sunset. At 5:20 p.m., the space train appeared in the sky low above the western horizon, then headed towards the zenith and passed almost perfectly above our heads. The show ended with Earth entering the shadow in the eastern part of the sky. And all this just over 10 hours after the launch of Falcon 9 with Starlink satellites on board (thanks to this, the individual “carriages” of the space train were close to each other and remained relatively bright).

As astronomy popularizer Karol Wójcicki writes from the Z head in the stars channel, we are dealing here with a “virtually perfect flight” that “will be hard to beat.” “Who knows when the next good opportunity will be?” – adds Wójcicki.

Then we’ll have more. Another flight the same day

As he notes, we will have the opportunity to see Starlinki again on the same day. The space train will return to Poland at 6:52 p.m. This time the flight will last slightly shorter, although the satellites should still be clearly visible. In this case, the best conditions for observation will be provided primarily to the inhabitants of western Poland.