Starlink Constellation may be visible from UK

I missed the launch of the Starlink Satellites.

A little while after release into orbit the 60 satellites were visible as a string of bright lights moving across the sky.

See this video taken by amateur astronomer Dr. Marco Langbroek (sattrackcam.blogspot.com) as they streaked over the Netherlands:

I’m not going to get into any conversations about them being light pollution.
But they’re now up there, and fingers crossed they’ll get a lot fainter as they move away from Earth into their higher orbits.

Given this info I started to look at the possibilities of them being visible from the UK.

We need to be quick as they will get fainter.

Here’s the circumstances I have worked out for tonight.

There are 3, possibly 4 sightings possible tonight (25th May), given clear skies.
These timings may vary slightly as the orbits are constantly changing.

Maps of the predicted passes are at the bottom of the page.

Like the ISS they will appear in the western sky and move eastwards.

25th May.
22:16 UT (23:16 BST) – Passes over mid France, so they could be visible at low altitude in the southern sky?
23:54 UT (00:54 BST) – Right over the UK. Will be at very high altitude.

26th May.
01:30 UT (02:30 BST) – Right over the UK. Very high altitude.
03:08 UT (04:08 BST) – Passes south west of Cornwall. A bit lower in the south eastern sky.

I have calculated a few more pass predictions, but these timings will drift as the orbits of the 60 satellites are altered.

These were spotted by some observers in the UK on the 25th.
They reported them to be about magnitude +4, so easily visible to the naked eye.

21:32 UT (22:32 BST) 
23:09 UT (27th May -00:09 BST)  

27th May.
00:46 UT (01:46 BST)
02:23 UT (03:23 BST)

28th May.
21:51 UT (22:51 BST)
23:27 UT (29th May 00:27 BST).

29th May.
01:04 UT (02:04 BST).
02:41 UT (03:41 BST).

Get out a while before the predicted event, as the satellites are still changing their orbits, so may appear early as they spread out and move away from one another.

N2YO gives you a really easy way of producing predictions for your location:
https://n2yo.com/passes/?s=74001

You can use Celestrac to find out circumstances,
https://celestrak.com

Heaven’s Above hasn’t got them on it’s database yet, but I have copied the orbital elements.
___________________
STARLINK
1 70002U 19999A 19144.10416667 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 09
2 70002 053.0000 175.8692 0001467 047.2921 324.9821 15.42070599 01
___________________

If you copy and paste the text between the lines above, you can import them into the Web page: https://www2.flightclub.io/dashboard

You should then be able to reproduce the maps below:

Here are the maps of each pass that this Web page generated:

25th May – 22:16 UT

25th May 23:54 UT

26th May 01:30 UT

26th May 03:08 UT

26th May 21:36 UT

26th May 23:13 UT

27th May 00:50 UT

 

27th May 02:27 UT

28th May 21:51 UT

28th May 23:29 UT

29th May 01:06 UT

29th May 02:43 UT