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Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit

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Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit

#181

Post by jrh3 »

misiti3780 wrote: post #169
hnbad wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to forget given the direction Elon has been heading ever since the "pedo guy" comment but there are a lot of techno-optimists who are obsessively in love with all things SpaceX (and - tho now to a lesser extent - Tesla). This turf isn't astro but it's also not really turf to begin with - just a very enthusiastic singular blade of grass.

This is one of the dumbest takes i have seen on HN in a while.

For real. The trolls that are so unnerved at Elon need to get out from under their bridge and enjoy some sunshine.

Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit

#182

Post by sib »

andsoitis wrote: post #149
gambiting wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Would be cool if one day you could get your connectivity needs handled by a single company cheaply, almost anywhere in the world That sounds like an absolute distopian nightmare and the last person on earth that I want to be running this service is Elon Musk. In general I find it horrendous how a single american company can pollute the night sky for every human being in the world, whether they can use their service…

> pollute the night sky That pollution is much much less than the light pollution from cities and aircraft (both visual and noise). If we’re going to care about pollution of the night sky it seems more effective to take on those cases that are already very intrusive.

The problem is that these satellites pollute the night sky in exactly those areas that are currently not polluted by other sources. So if you go to an International Dark Sky Place to do astrophotography, you end up with a whole bunch (technical term) of little Starlink dots / lines all through your images.

Agree that fixing broader light pollution is a separate and important issue.

Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit

#183

Post by skrbjc »

sandworm101 wrote: post #122
ponector wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But is local option really cheap? From my experience it is quite the opposite: they know you have nowhere else to go so you will buy their connection anyway.

That depends on the service. Many rural wifi nets serve less than a few hundred customers and rely on the good will of landowners to allow stations on their land. Much depends on geography. In the flat areas of the midwest there are tall towers serving expansive areas. Those are the ones with licenses and local monopolies. But in rough or mountainous terrain the net requires lots of little relay stations and is done…

It seems like starlink is a perfect option for this type of situation.

>So when the relay stations need fixing, boats and skilled labor show up to help get the town back online.

I'm sure if you factor in the costs of this plus the nontangible costs of downtime, Starlink is far superior, even if it is more expensive.

Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit

#184

Post by daemonologist »

barbazoo wrote: post #175
mewse-hn wrote: post #163

I've been confused why our Starlink coverage is so good in rural Manitoba, Canada. On HN and elsewhere I heard complaining from Americans about how the service is over-subscribed and over-saturated, but everyone I talk to here raves about the service. I assumed we simply had less subscribers. This visualization has revealed another reason to me: the satellites hit the northern extent of their orbit and dwell over our…

I don't quite understand your second reason. Could you elaborate what you mean by "dwell over our province" which would explain improved coverage beyond the fact that there are as you said probably fewer subscribers the satellites are visible from?

Starlink has a lot of (most?) satellites at an orbital inclination of 53 degrees to avoid "wasting" time over the poles where few people live while still providing coverage at most other latitudes. This means that at any time there's a higher density of satellites above that latitude than at the equator.

Here's a map of the ISS orbit (similar inclination) over time which shows the effect: https://engaging-data.com/pages/scripts/iss/iss3.png

Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit

#186

Post by consumer451 »

elif wrote: post #118
Klaster_1 wrote: post #9

Wow, I knew Starlink had an enormous constellation, but visualizing it like that really empathizes the scope. Would be cool if one day you could get your connectivity needs handled by a single company cheaply, almost anywhere in the world, without bothering about new contracts, moving cities or country borders.

Google Fi is uncapped, global, free roaming. Probably some countries don't work but so far ~30/30 for me.

I live abroad for long periods of time, and went from T-Mobile to Mint for my US number. It's $75 per 3 months once you pass the discounted intro period. I also get a local SIM card, and I just use Mint via WiFi calling. It has been working well for me.

Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit

#187

Post by zachmu »

wmoxam wrote: post #139
k4rli wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So 100Mbps for ~16k people. Barely useful. I can only ever see it being useful for real rural people, who don't get any 4G signal, but these people might also not want to pay the crazy subscription fees or $500+ for the equipment. I don't see any reason why anyone living in or <100km near a city would ever want this. 5G mobile can already provide 500Mbps and fiber is just unbeatable. At least the night sky was ruined…

I have Starlink. I'm 12km away from a town that has cable internet, but the only wired connection I can get is dial-up (fibre should be available in about 2 years: https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontario-connects-making-high-spe... ). Previously I subscribed to a local ISP that only supported 5mb/s, then one of the large Telcos (Bell) offered a 4G wireless internet, but it only had 100GB cap. With the overage charges I i…

Same, we went from long-range WiFi that cost us over $250/month and dropped out constantly to rock-solid 50Mbps for $120. Starlink gets slower during Netflix hours but never slow enough you can't run a few simultaneous video streams.

Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit

#188

Post by gambiting »

andsoitis wrote: post #149
gambiting wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Would be cool if one day you could get your connectivity needs handled by a single company cheaply, almost anywhere in the world That sounds like an absolute distopian nightmare and the last person on earth that I want to be running this service is Elon Musk. In general I find it horrendous how a single american company can pollute the night sky for every human being in the world, whether they can use their service…

> pollute the night sky That pollution is much much less than the light pollution from cities and aircraft (both visual and noise). If we’re going to care about pollution of the night sky it seems more effective to take on those cases that are already very intrusive.

You missed the point I was making - it's not about absolute amount of pollution, it's about the fact that Musk's company is polluting the sky for every single human on earth, despite the fact it does not provide their service for everyone on earth. People in many countries around the world now have to deal with his swarm of sattelites to look at the sky, because of an American billionaire's fantasy. That doesn't seem fair to me.

Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit

#190

Post by gambiting »

averageRoyalty wrote: post #83
gambiting wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Would be cool if one day you could get your connectivity needs handled by a single company cheaply, almost anywhere in the world That sounds like an absolute distopian nightmare and the last person on earth that I want to be running this service is Elon Musk. In general I find it horrendous how a single american company can pollute the night sky for every human being in the world, whether they can use their service…

Have you seen them in orbit? I look at the sky regularly in a low light area and I've not seen any "pollution", but maybe I don't know how to look?

I have actually! At night you can see the "train" of satellites when the light reflects off them just at the right angle - it's like a long line of dots across the horizon. Of course that is nothing compared to what problems this is causing for astronomy.
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