from The Washington Post via Yahoo! News

Starlink satellite trains – is this the future of the night sky?

by Daniel Wolfe

Almost 15 years later, seeing the aurora borealis is a bit like a drug, says photographer Ronn Murray.

“Once you get a taste for it . . . you’re always trying to see it again because you get this kind of spiritual high from it.”

The lakes by Delta Junction in Alaska weren’t frozen over yet when it was just dark enough to see the magical halation over the night’s sky and another phenomenon Murray instantly knew – a moving train of lights.

Guide and part-owner of the Aurora Chasers, an Alaska based tour group, Murray had seen the lineup of satellites a few days prior. He recognized it from other people’s accounts but had never seen it himself. Literally the stars aligned, and the night sky opened up on a drive 150 miles outside of Fairbanks. The footage shows what looks like stars trailing one another amid the emerald glow of the northern lights.

“We were a bit baffled at first then realized, ‘Wait, that must be Starlink,'” he said. “Then my wife got her star tracker app out, and it showed that’s what we had seen.”

The view, as mesmerizing as it is surprising, has astronomers wondering, is there any way to dim the lights on these satellites, or are we doomed to a mega-constellation future?

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