“a bright visitor passing through the inner Solar System. Now, the orbiting satellites themselves only appear as streaks because of the long camera exposure, over 10 minutes in this case. On the contrary, to the eye, satellites appear as points that drift slowly across the night sky and shine by reflecting sunlight – primarily just after sunset and before sunrise. The featured image was taken just before sunrise two weeks ago from Bavaria, Germany.”
I guess the only ways to access the natural sky is to leave the atmosphere or to use AI to remove the trails.
Anybody knows why the trails “blink” instead of appearing as a solid line? I’m guessing it’s due to clouds in the light path, but I really doubt that’s the case
This is from stacking dozens of exposures and not rejecting out the trails. The satellite still moves for the few seconds between each exposure, creating the gaps
Multiple exposures stacked together? The dark spots could be the brief time between exposures.
Probably satellite rotation making them “blink”
Most satellites don’t rotate once they’re in stable orbit. They like to sit in the sunlight and point at the ground.
The light tends to be reflected light off solar panels. Sometimes, as the satellite moves the light doesn’t reflect at you.