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I saw something really odd last night that I cannot understand.

Last night I got up around 3am to catch a glimpse of the upcoming Perseids meteor shower, now I know it's not peaking until next week but we have clear skies so I thought I'd take a look. I've seen hundreds of meteor showers, so know what to expect.

Whilst looking at another part of the sky a large shooting star radiated from the Perseus constellation, I just missed it! However, what was left in the sky was most odd, a really long dotted line of what looked like dust trail from the meteor. Usually, these trails stay where there are, and slowly fade away. But this trail didn't fade and very slowly moved across night the sky in an absolutely perfectly straight line until it faded into the horizon.

From the moment I first saw it to when it fully disappeared into the horizon was probably about 30 seconds or more. What did I see?

(Gloucestershire, UK).

James K
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Chris Roberts
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  • My understanding of you description is you indirectly saw the bright flash of a fireball/meteor. But didn't see the bright part directly. You then saw the trail of the meteor. This trail moved from the vicinity of Perseus towards the (easterly?) horizon, taking about 30 seconds to cover the 45 or so degrees? Did the trail move perpendicular to itself, so like " | →" or in the same direction as itself " — →"? The "dotted" part makes me think of Musk's satellites, Are they still in a tight constellation? Note that the moon was up at 3am and would affect viewing significantly – James K Aug 08 '20 at 16:38
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    Maybe you saw a meteor and also the latest Starlink constellation (launched yesterday)? – Mick Aug 08 '20 at 18:46
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    Welcome to Stack Exchange! Don't worry if your question is closed as duplicate, it's standard practice here. In this case you didn't see a strange trail, you just saw one of those darn starlink ttrains. Please feel free to ask a new question any time. Also, you can click "accept" on your own answer here. – uhoh Aug 09 '20 at 03:22

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Thanks for your replies. Yes it appears what I saw was Elon Musk's Starlink satellites. I didn't even know they existed, what a sight! Thank you. Chris

Chris Roberts
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