Why you might even see unusual shiny lights within the San Francisco Bay Space sky tonight

You may have spotted a mysterious string of lights lined up in a row on Thursday, moving like a train across the night sky.

Elon Musk is in charge of the show in the sky and tonight there will be a rerun that is even brighter.

Musk’s SpaceX company launched the Starlink satellites on May 4th – yes, Star Wars Day – from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center. The Falcon 9 booster threw 60 Starlink satellites into the atmosphere.

The last forecast as of Friday 11:30 a.m. when the satellite train will first soar across the Bay Area skies is Friday 9:24 p.m. to 9:25 p.m. They are visible for about 5 minutes, according to the Heavens-Above website. There you can enter your location to determine when the satellites will pass in your area. (Note: the display may change slightly during the day.)

The page indicated that Starlink is almost right over your head tonight and is 10 to 15 times brighter than last night. The satellites will rise from the northwest and disappear into the shadow of the earth shortly after crossing the head to the southeast.

Here you can also check when the satellites are passing your area.

The Starlink train is particularly noticeable in the sky because, according to the company, it is “60 times closer to the earth than traditional satellites” and can provide communications services to remote, underserved areas.

According to the International Astronomical Union, the satellites can be made of reflective material when sunlight hits them in the hours just after sunset or before sunrise.

“They launch another 60 of them every few months,” said Gerald McKeegan, an astronomer at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland. “When they first launch them, they’re a small line of satellites that are close together and then they slowly separate from each other. People enjoy seeing these fairy lights, but astronomers just go crazy with light pollution They supposedly take them up into the atmosphere over time to make them less visible. “

The union and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory have both raised concerns in the past that the satellites are too bright and are causing problems for astronomers.

“The organization generally welcomes the principle of dark and radio-silent skies as essential not only to improving our understanding of the universe we belong to, but also as a resource for all of humanity and to protect nighttime wildlife,” said the Union in a statement posted online. “We do not yet understand the effects of thousands of these visible satellites scattered across the night sky, and despite their good intentions, these satellite constellations can threaten both of them.”

McKeegan said the Starlink satellites, as well as other satellites, are disrupting their work at the Oakland Science Center.

“We have an asteroid search program in the middle that takes pictures of the sky to look for moving objects,” he said. “What happens is these satellites are drawing those white streaks across the image. It ruins the image. It was a little problem before, but it’s a much bigger problem with more and more satellites.”