Re:Image of Our Satellite-Choked Night Skies
by tetraodonpuffer on Thursday November 05, 2026 @10:11AM
(#50380090)
it seems fairly evenly distributed besides the aggregation in the middle, what orbit would that be? why are there so many satellites there?
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Re:Image of Our Satellite-Choked Night Skies
by wat10000 on Thursday November 05, 2026 @10:45AM
(#50380558)
Most satellites in low orbit are Starlink, and most Starlink satellites are at either 43° or 53° inclinations, so it's probably those. These inclinations cover most of the population in the most efficient manner. Low inclinations don't cover people at higher latitudes. (Inclination is equal to the highest latitude that the satellite will reach, and then coverage extends a little further since they have some slant range.) Higher inclinations waste more time over unpopulated regions.
Re:Image of Our Satellite-Choked Night Skies
by tetraodonpuffer on Thursday November 05, 2026 @10:50AM
(#50380638)
I guess given we have the location, time and what looks like venus to the bottom right it should be possible to figure out the direction the picture was taken in to figure out the exact inclinations of the orbits but yeah, makes sense it'd be starlink