Spotting Starlink satellites over Wellesley

When Wellesley Middle School 6th grader Aditi Murthy looked up last night at about 7:20pm she spotted a streak of light and alerted her dad, Sri Krishnamurthy. “For a minute, I was convinced we spotted UFOs,” Krishnamurthy said.

But with a bit of research, they figured out that they had just seen SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, several thousand of which fly a few hundred miles above earth vs. the tens of thousands of miles that separate traditional geostationary satellites from the planet. Starlink, which offers internet service, refers to its satellites as a constellation.

You can find apps, or use the website Find Starlink, to figure out when the satellites are passing overhead (a bit before 7:30pm this week).

Or maybe you could just consult with Krishnamurthy’s daughter, who has a knack for spotting unusual sights in the sky. Three years ago she alerted her dad to what turned out to be the International Space Station flying overhead. “In summers, we have a watch party on our patio once in a while while the ISS flies by!” he says.

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