Starlink satellite sightings are becoming more common. Here’s when you can spot them

Did you see these mysterious lights in the sky on Tuesday? You’ve got a chance of seeing them again.(Supplied: u/rdub001, Reddit)

Have you seen bright lights in a straight line travelling across the sky lately and wondered what they are?

As the world soaks-up the leap in human ingenuity from the first images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, some people have been wondering what they are seeing in the sky closer to home.

An ABC Radio Brisbane listener told the Breakfast program the lights seemed to be like a centipede of stars or lights travelling through the sky towards him, going at “quite a speed”

University of Southern Queensland astronomer and astrobiologist Jonti Horner said the lights were actually the latest Starlink satellites belonging to Elon Musk, and such sightings were becoming more common.

“His company SpaceX launched [the satellites] in the last 24-36 hours and they were visible between about 5:21am and 5:26am over our region this morning,” he said.

“A number of them, all in line, very close together, relatively bright.

“The satellites have been launched to provide the Starlink internet service and are causing astronomers no end of grief because of the pollution they cause, and they’re also really freaking people out. 

If you live on the east coast of Australia and want to see the satellites, Professor Horner said they would be visible again on Thursday between 5:36am to 5:44am and again on Friday at about 5:55am.

“It will be two or three minutes earlier at the southern tip down near Tasmania, and one or two minutes later if you’re in the northern end,” Professor Horner said.

Source: ABC News