The Satellite Strewn Sky

This 2-minute time-lapse movie documents the satellite-filled sky that is now a reality and getting more crowded every week!
The movie is made of 4,232 frames taken over 4 hours, from 11:43 p.m. to 3:39 a.m. MDT - almost four hours from dusk to dawn - on June 4/5, 2024.
The sequence repeats: the first clip is from frames rendered at 60 frames per second; the second clip is rendered at 30 fps but blended to create satellite trails by stacking frames in sets of seven.
In the latter, the satellite trails appear as dashes as each exposure was 2 seconds long taken with an interval of 1 second between frames.
On June nights from my latitude of 51° N even satellites in low Earth orbit (~ 400 km up) are lit all night by sunlight. Many of the parallel trails heading generally horizontal west to east (right to left) may be from groups of SpaceX Starlinks. Others traveling vertically north-south are more likely from Earth observation satellites.
At least one natural streak appears briefly - from a meteor caught by chance on one frame. Other uniform streaks may be from high-altitude satellites moving much more slowly.
This is looking due south and all the trails disappear low in the south above the trees, as that's where the Earth's shadow is, even on this June night. So the satellites aren't lit when they are in that small part of the sky. They emerge from the shadow heading north and disappear into the shadow heading south.
At other times of the year low-orbit satellites are visible only after sunset or before sunrise, especially from lower latitudes. But not near summer solstice, and from higher latitudes.
A few trails moving left to right or right to left low in the sky are aircraft arriving and departing from Calgary YYC.
The field of view is about 100° by 75°.
TECHNICAL:
Each exposure was just two seconds. The lens was the Laowa 15mm wide open at f/2 on the Canon R6 at ISO 16,000, very high in order to record as much as possible in two seconds, to keep the satellites' trails on each frame as short as possible, and for the purpose of creating this time-lapse movie.
The camera was on a tracker, the 3-D-printed OGTracker, following the sky and stars, so they remain points, and the Milky Way shows up at center.
The still image composite at the start and end is a stack of 560 frames taken over just 30 minutes in the middle of the night and sequence.
I shot this from home in southern Alberta, Canada.
Processing was with Adobe Camera Raw, LRTimelapse, and TimeLapseDeFlicker.
Music is by Gavin Luke, licensed from Epidemic Sound.

[@TIOVNICHILE]

Beautiful Capture for a sky so contaminated !!!

[@georgecharpentier6043]

A beautiful illustration of the increasing pervasiveness of technology in our night sky. It gives us a moment to enjoy its beauty, the chance to reflect on its consequences, and an opportunity to ensure that its effect does not irreversibly damage the natural beauty of the universe. Thank you Alan.

[@varvar_of_space]

Thank u!

[@MrKhagol]

this issue is very inherit to higher latitudes especially during summer. lower latitudes fare better in this aspect but longer exposures easily reveals starlink sats.

[@EpicSpaceflight]

The cost of bringing education and connectivity to the world. It is worth it though. Knowledge is key to short term safety and long term prosperity for those of us not fortunate enough to have fixed infrastructure on the ground.

[@Amazingsky]

And do you know how many third world countries and citizens are using Starlink or other LEO systems for their internet, or can afford to? That market can be and is served by geosats and conventional cell systems. The low latency of LEO satellite systems is designed to serve one primary and profitable sector: banking and stock trading. Not impoverished areas. But check on Starlink's customer base and where the profits come from. Report back -- I'd be interested to learn more.

[@radudamian3473]

Thanks EM...not!