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So this morning (4th December 2019, 0518hrs) I was out turning my horses out in the fields and noticed a strange arrangement of what I perceive to be stars, only I’ve never seen it before and wondered if someone might be able to explain or put forward some suggestions?

East North East in the sky there seemed to be 9 vertically aligned stars and 2 horizontally aligned stars with the lower second to last star - making an alternative shaped cross. On looking closer I realised they were moving (so definitely not stars then), altogether at first (downwards in the sky) but then as I carried on with what I was doing while watching as best I could, they’d skew a little in alignment then move back - within 10 mins I’d lost nearly all of them and could only see 2.

Anybody have any idea what these may be? They were white in colour to the naked eye, as bright as the surrounding stars except for one just to the right hand corner of the top ‘object’ (which was slightly brighter) and we’re moving quickly enough for me to notice but not enough to stop me immediately questioning my eyes.

Photo taken with an IPhone XS Max, no filter and extremely limited light pollution in the sky.

James K
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Rach
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    This description is consistent with several recent sightings of the Starlink satellites. If you think it's something else, we need a rough geographic location in addition to the observation time. – Mike G Dec 04 '19 at 18:15
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    That’s a really good call - I’ve just watched one of the Vimeos which someone shared on the post you linked to but they seem to be moving in a speedier manner, are also much closer together and are brighter; that being said there are a great many of them so still very possible. Thanks! – Rach Dec 04 '19 at 20:29
  • brightnesses will vary and the distances between them will continue to increase over time as they spread out, and as they continue to increase their altitude the apparent speed of motion across the sky will also slow. If you have a photo you'd like to share you can edit your question and use the photo import button https://i.stack.imgur.com/0iT5x.png and if that doesn't work you can leave a comment with your own link and someone can help import it for you. It would be interesting to see a cellphone photo of satellite constellation! – uhoh Dec 04 '19 at 23:14
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    "If Elon Musk’s Starlink project continues as it has begun, it will likely end ground-based astronomy as we know it." - Ethan Siegel – Keith McClary Dec 05 '19 at 00:41
  • I’d really like to get the photo, I managed to get, uploaded but for some reason it just won’t go.. any help would be appreciated – Rach Dec 06 '19 at 09:00

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