Space AtlasHow to see Starlink satellites and the Starlink train tonight
That neat line of lights sliding across the sky is a Starlink train: a fresh batch of internet satellites still flying in formation after launch. About 11,143 Starlink satellites are in orbit, and around 410 are above your horizon at any moment. Here is what is over you right now.
Starlink satellites are above the horizon from a typical spot. Counting yours…
● Starlink · ● everything elseLooking up: zenith in the center, north at the top.
Counts the 16,920 objects tracked with current orbital elements, from the public CelesTrak catalog. Your location is used once to compute this and is never stored. Privacy
What Starlink looks like in the sky
In the days after a launch: a single file of bright, evenly spaced points, all moving together in silence and crossing the sky in a few minutes. This is the sight people photograph and ask about.
Weeks later, at their working orbit around 460 km: separate faint points on different paths. Newer satellites carry dimming treatments, so most are a binocular sight once they have spread out.
When and where to look
- Pick your night from the panel above: it gives the next naked-eye pass of each young batch over your area, with the time, the direction it rises from and how high it climbs.
- Passes come in twilight, the couple of hours after sunset or before sunrise, when your sky is dark but the satellites a few hundred kilometers up are still in sunlight.
- Be outside a few minutes early, face the direction it rises from and follow its path up the sky. The train fades out where it enters Earth's shadow.
- Choose a spot with a wide, open view and few bright lights. No telescope needed: a fresh train is easy with the naked eye.
Why Starlink flies in a train
Each Starlink launch releases a few dozen satellites at almost the same point on the same orbit, so for the first days they follow one another in a tight chain, evenly spaced like beads on a string. Over the following weeks each satellite fires its own thruster to climb to its working altitude and drift into its slot, and the line spreads out into a sky-wide mesh that carries internet to places cables never reached. Launch history for the whole fleet is on the SpaceX tracker, and the next flights are on upcoming launches.
See the whole constellation
With about 11,143 satellites, Starlink has more in orbit than every other operator put together. The 3D atlas shows all of them moving live, and the timeline replays how the constellation grew from its first launch to today.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I see the Starlink train tonight?
- Only in the first days or weeks after a launch, and only during twilight, when your sky is dark but the satellites are still in sunlight. The live panel on this page checks every Starlink batch young enough to still fly in a line and gives its next naked-eye pass over your area, with the time and the direction to face. Check the next pass
- What is the string of lights moving across the sky?
- A neat line of evenly spaced lights gliding across the sky is almost always a Starlink satellite train: a batch of internet satellites recently launched together and still flying in a tight chain before they spread out and raise their orbits. Each one is a satellite reflecting sunlight, and the whole line drifts smoothly in the same direction. See Starlink on the live map
- What does Starlink look like in the sky?
- Right after a launch it looks like a string of pearls: a dozen or more bright points in a single file, sliding silently across the sky over a few minutes. Once the satellites reach their working orbit they spread out, and each one is a faint, steady point that most people never notice without binoculars.
- When is the Starlink train visible?
- The train is easiest to see in the first days after a launch, during the twilight hours just after dusk or before dawn, when the satellites are still bunched together and lit by the Sun against a dark sky. As the days pass they climb to their final orbit and drift apart, so the tidy line fades into individual moving points within a couple of weeks.
- How many Starlink satellites are there?
- About 11,100 Starlink satellites are in orbit, making it by far the largest satellite constellation ever built, and roughly 410 of them are above the horizon from any given spot at any moment. You can see every one of them plotted live on the 3D map. View the whole constellation
- Why do the Starlink satellites look like they are in a line?
- A rocket releases a batch of Starlink satellites at nearly the same point on the same orbit, so at first they follow one another like beads on a string. Over the following days each one uses its own thruster to raise and spread its orbit, which is why the line is a temporary sight best caught soon after launch.
- Are the Starlink satellites the same as the ISS?
- No. The ISS is a single very bright light and the brightest satellite in the night sky, while a Starlink train is many fainter lights in a row. Both move smoothly and silently without flashing. If you want the single brightest, steadiest light, that is the space station. How to see the ISS