Observation by Nick James: Starlink glints from La Palma

Uploaded by

Nick James

Observer

Nick James

Observed

2025 Jul 24 - 00:01

Uploaded

2025 Jul 24 - 09:43

Objects

Spacecraft

Planetarium overlay

Enable overlay
Show stars
Label stars
Show deep sky objects
Label deep sky objects
Show constellation boundaries
Show constellation sticks
Show constellation labels
Show RA/Dec grid

Constellation

Ursa Major

Field centre

RA: 10^h39^m
Dec: +57°46'
Position angle: +47°29'

Field size

24° × 16°

Equipment

Sony A7s iii + 85mm, f/1.2 Canon lens

Exposure

10s, ISO1600

Location

2100m altitude on La Palma

Target name

Starlink

Title

Starlink glints from La Palma

About this image

One of the nice things about La Palma, in addition to how dark the skies are, is that there are no aircraft and hardly any satellites. We get lots of satellites in the UK at the moment since they are in sunlight during our short nights. That is not the case for most LEO satellites at 28N. There is one region of the sky though that does have lots of satellites even when the Sun is well below the horizon. That region is low down in the direction of the Sun where we get specular reflections off the nadir-facing flat surface of the spacecraft as explained here.

This picture is a 10s exposure low in the north showing this effect. A timelapse video which is even more striking is here.

Files associated with this observation

DSC04147.JPG (2.5 MB)

Like this image

Andy Wilson, Dominic Ford, Callum Potter

Copyright of all images and other observations submitted to the BAA remains with the owner of the work. Reproduction of work by third parties is expressly forbidden without the consent of the copyright holder. By submitting images to this online gallery, you grant the BAA permission to reproduce them in any of our publications.

Registered charity no. 210769
Registered company no. 117572

For more information including contact details, click here.

Our Terms of Use are here.

Our Privacy Policy is here.