HARTFORD, Conn. — It's a sight in the sky that has some asking, is it another UFO?
Given the recent news of balloons and other flying objects, SpaceX's Starlink satellites are catching the attention of folks on the ground.
A viewer in the town of Washington sent FOX61 a video of the bright lights passing overhead Monday evening.
It's a train of 55 SpaceX Starlink satellites passing overhead. The satellites are used to provide this new form of Internet coverage worldwide.
The batch of satellites was launched with a Falcon 9 rocket just after midnight Saturday night, from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The satellites are now orbiting the earth at a reasonably low altitude.
In this early stage of their orbit, if the timing is right, the satellites become illuminated and reflect sunlight, usually before dawn or after sunset.
Eventually, they will spread apart and rise to a higher altitude, where they will be in operation, serving the Internet to those who subscribe to Starlink. At that point, they will not be as visible.
There are some opportunities to spot the train of Starlink satellites in our sky this week:
- Tonight (Tuesday) at 6:31 p.m., from west to northeast, reaching a peak height of 64 degrees above the horizon
- Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 6:47 p.m., from west to northeast, reaching a peak height of 67 degrees above the horizon
Each opportunity lasts five minutes. There is another chance Thursday, but clouds and rain will spoil the chance to see it in southern New England.
Ryan Breton is a meteorologist at FOX61 News. He can be reached at rbreton@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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