How to Spot a Starlink Train

If you've ever looked up and seen a perfectly straight line of lights gliding silently across the sky, one behind the other like a string of pearls, you saw a Starlink train. It's one of the few parts of what SpaceX builds that anyone can see for free with their own eyes, no telescope needed. It's also one of the most common things people report as a UFO.

What you're actually looking at

Every Starlink launch releases a batch of satellites at the same moment, a few hundred kilometers up and well below their final altitude. For the first few days they fly close together in a line along the same orbit. That's the train. Over the following weeks each satellite uses its own small electric thrusters to climb to its working altitude, and the line gradually stretches out until the satellites are spread across the sky and too faint to pick out.

Why you only see them after sunset or before sunrise

Satellites don't make their own light. You're seeing sunlight bouncing off them. That only works in a short window: the sun has to be down where you're standing, so the sky is dark, but the satellites, hundreds of kilometers up, still have to be high enough to catch the sunlight. That happens for roughly the first hour or two after sunset and the last hour or two before sunrise. In the middle of the night they're in Earth's shadow and go dark.

How to catch one

1. Check when the last launch was. SpaceX launches Starlink batches several times a week, but a train is only easy to see in the first few days after a launch.
2. Look up your location. Free sites like Find Starlink and Heavens-Above list upcoming passes for where you are: what time, which direction to face, and how bright they'll be.
3. Get somewhere dark. A backyard works for a fresh train. A campsite away from city lights is even better.
4. Let your eyes adjust. Give it 15–20 minutes without looking at a bright phone screen. Use a red light or turn your screen brightness all the way down.
5. Face the right direction a few minutes early. A pass can take a few minutes to cross the sky, and the first satellite often shows up before the time listed.

Starlink, plane, or something else?

Why they're harder to see than they used to be

The first Starlink trains in 2019 were brighter than anyone expected, and astronomers pushed back hard because the streaks showed up in telescope images. SpaceX responded with darker coatings, sunshades, and later mirror-like films that reflect sunlight away from the ground. They also fly the satellites edge-on while they're climbing to reduce how much light they reflect. Newer satellites are noticeably dimmer as a result. You can still see a fresh train, but you usually need darker skies and better timing than in 2019.