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My location is Cottage Grove Oregon, and last night in the sky just south of directly overhead I saw an absolutely straight line of moving lights, each light passing my eye at 3 second intervals, going from West to East. There was one break in the sequence, involving a 6 second delay.

Seventeen lights were visible at any one time, each a small disc reflecting the sun and about the apparent size of artificial satellites, though they gave the impression of being much further away than such satellites.

I did not see the start of this phenomenon, but watched until it came to an end, some 3 to 5 minutes, so I saw 60 to 100 of these things pass overhead. My immediate thought was that I was watching the alien starship fleet flyby, and expected the news media to be full of it this morning, but nothing.

Did anyone else see them?

workisa4letterword
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  • A couple of things: it is next to impossible to gauge how far away objects are when they are just point sources like that. Also, look up Starlink and see if that matches what you saw, there are quite a few of them and they often come in groups. – Justin T Feb 10 '23 at 19:54
  • See https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/32034/line-of-lights-moving-in-a-straight-line-with-a-few-following. It is not unusual to see this type of thing these days given how many Falcon 9 launches there are deploying these satellites. – JohnHoltz Feb 10 '23 at 19:57
  • Probably, after an initial assessment of our civilization [sic], they thought better of it... :) – paul garrett Feb 10 '23 at 22:32

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You saw the Starlink satellites (G5-3) launched on February 2. Here are the predictions from Heavens-Above.com for Eugene Oregon.

Heavens-Above.com for Eugene Oregon

JohnHoltz
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There's about a 90% chance what you saw was a bunch of Starlink satellites.

Even I saw it, and I live across the country from Oregon. The following image is not mine, but it does depict exactly what you're describing, and what I saw.Starlink satellites are seen streaking across the sky like tiny white dots.

It's safe to say that it's a bunch of Starlink satellites and not an alien armada. Sorry for crushing your (hilarious) theory.

Deko Revinio
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  • Certainly I apologize for my deliberate insult, but I would point out that it was a response, that patronizing comments are also insulting, and jokes are not amusing if their object does not laugh. And my thanks to all who informed me about Starlink satellites. – workisa4letterword Feb 11 '23 at 19:52
  • @workisa4letterword It's ok. Honestly, people have said worse things to me. – Deko Revinio Feb 14 '23 at 16:20
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As noted, these were new Starlink satellites. As for your remark on giving the impression they are further away: unfortunately, our eyes (and minds) are not able to estimate distances of objects without reference, and with satellites, stars, and other celestial bodies, we do not have any useful reference. Even brightness cannot help, since it depends on the material that reflects the light.

piet
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