What is a Starlink train?

It's the string of Starlink satellites from a single launch, seen shortly after deployment while they're still bunched up in low orbit and haven't spread out into their operational shells. You see 40–60 satellites in a nearly straight line, drifting silently overhead for a few minutes.

How long is a train visible after launch?

Trains are most striking for 2–5 nights after launch. By day 7 they've spread out and dimmed noticeably. After 2–3 weeks the individual satellites are hard to see without knowing exactly where to look.

Why can't I see them every night?

Same reason as the ISS — the satellites have to be above your horizon, sunlit at their altitude while your sky is dark. That only happens during deep twilight, and only when a fresh train is passing over your part of Earth.

What direction do they move?

West to east, at a shallow angle to the equator. From the northern hemisphere they usually rise in the west or northwest and set in the east or northeast.

Are they visible from cities?

Bright fresh trains — yes, easily. Older, spread-out satellites — no; you'd need dark skies and to know exactly where to look.

How bright are the satellites?

A freshly launched Starlink at 300 km altitude reaches roughly magnitude 2–3 — comparable to a middle-brightness star and easy naked-eye. Once they climb to their 550 km operational orbit and deploy their visors, they dim to magnitude 5–6 and are near the edge of naked-eye visibility.

Aren't these ruining astronomy?

Professional astronomers are legitimately concerned about streaks in long-exposure survey images. For visual amateur observing the impact is much smaller — you notice a satellite every few minutes but they don't spoil the view. SpaceX has committed to darker satellites since Starlink v2.

Where can I get exact per-launch predictions?

For batch-specific pass times, external tools such as findstarlink.com and 'See a Satellite Tonight' compute predictions from the latest orbital elements. SnapCosmos shows the deep-twilight windows when any train could be visible from your location — the two data sources complement each other.

Starlink satellite trains

A train is only visible in the twilight window when the satellites are still sunlit and your sky is already dark — a window that opens at a different clock time for every latitude.

Starlink satellite trains

A freshly launched Starlink batch appears as a silent line of 40–60 satellites drifting across the sky — one of the strangest sights of the modern era.

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Set a location to see tonight's Starlink window

Starlink trains are only visible during the twilight window when satellites are still sunlit and your sky is already dark — a window that opens at a different time for every latitude.

Tonight's visible twilight windows
Where to look and what a train looks like
How recently launched trains behave
Cloud cover for the window

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Practical

How to spot a train

Five simple steps — no equipment beyond a clear low horizon and a couple of minutes of dark-adapted eyes.

Check the deep-twilight window shown above — always the ~30 minutes after civil twilight ends, and again before dawn.
Get away from bright direct light and let your eyes adapt for a few minutes.
Face west or northwest with an unobstructed low horizon.
Look for a moving line of evenly-spaced 'stars' drifting silently overhead.
A fresh train (0–3 days after launch) is unmistakable; older trains look like a scattered procession.

Batch schedules

Per-launch predictions

SnapCosmos shows when your sky supports a viewing. For exact pass times tied to the most recent launch, these tools compute predictions from the latest orbital elements.

findstarlink.com

Per-launch predictions with time, direction and elevation for any location worldwide.

See a Satellite Tonight

A friendly interactive predictor covering the ISS, Starlink trains and Tiangong.

What you are seeing

Why a fresh train looks so strange

Starlink is SpaceX's low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation. Each launch delivers 40–60 satellites at once, released together at roughly 300 km altitude. Over the following weeks they use their krypton ion thrusters to climb to their operational orbit (around 550 km) and spread out into a shell. Freshly launched, they are still bunched together — that's the "train" you can see.

After about a week, the satellites separate enough that a train looks like a scattered procession rather than a line. After two to three weeks they are spaced far enough apart that spotting individuals with the naked eye takes real effort. That's why Starlink watching is fundamentally a hobby tied to launch dates.

A regular satellite pass is a single moving dot. What makes a fresh Starlink train unsettling is the orderliness — dozens of dots moving in perfect single file, silent, at the speed of a distant aircraft. You can watch a full launch's worth of hardware pass overhead in under five minutes.

Bright fresh trains at 300 km reach roughly magnitude 2–3, easily visible even from a moderately light-polluted city. Once the satellites climb to 550 km and deploy their sun visors, they dim to magnitude 5–6 — near the edge of naked-eye visibility, and much harder to spot without knowing exactly where to look.

Frequently asked questions

Data sources & methodology

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