Tonight will see some clear skies in places but some cloud around also especially in the southwest and west where there will be the risk of a possible shower or 2 in places. Best of the clear weather will be across eastern and northern areas but some high level cloud could lead to hazy conditions.

Tonight once the sun sets and the sky turns dark a train of Elon Musk’s Starkink satellites will able to be seen over Irish skies.

These set of satellites where launched Thursday, April 16, from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

PASS TIME OVER IRELAND

First Pass

The satellites will come into view high in the SOUTH at twilight . They will come into view around 9:36pm tonight Wednesday 22nd April 2020 and ending at 9:53pm.

Second Pass

The satellites will come into view high in the WEST . They will come into view around 11:11pm tonight Wednesday 22nd April 2020 and ending at 11:28pm.

Third Pass

The satellites will come into view high overhead. They will come into view around 4:40am Thursday morning 22nd April 2020 and ending at 4:47am.

SpaceX plans to launch some 12,000 of these satellites in all. SpaceX – and astronomers around the world – have been surprised at their brightness in the night sky, and many worry that our night skies will become polluted with these SpaceX Starlink satellite trains, as they’re sometimes called. Many fear they will adversely affect studies of the universe around us that can be done from the ground.

Last I heard, SpaceX was trying to find a way to make future satellites less bright. But so far they haven’t accomplished it. The next SpaceX satellite launch will be this week, April 23.

Bottom line: Skywatchers in western Europe last night were stunned to see a line of bright satellites, perhaps 30 according to some estimates, trailing each other across the night sky on April 19, 2020. They were part of the SpaceX Starlink fleet and will have another chance tonight to view them.

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