Weird Night Sky Show

It was early morning a week ago, Friday 15 July. I woke and needed a pee. That done, I poured an inch of apple cider into a glass from the fridge to fix the dry mouth. I then went to the kitchen window, as is my routine, to look at the brilliant morning star (maybe Venus) that rises in the eastern sky over my neighbour's roof.

There was a bright star, too low I thought to be my bright one, which I thought should have been much higher. But I had no real idea of the time, so I checked on the mobile phone which was on the kitchen bench, where I leave it every night for exactly that purpose. Even in the dark I know where it is, and I can illuminate the face with a touch on the side. 5.26 it showed.

Before returning to bed I thought I'll have another quick look at the star through the window. It shone brightly and seemed to flicker and it held my attention for a moment. Then, the weird show began. A little higher, and a bit to the north, a quickly moving star appeared, trajectory upwards, followed by another one, then another and another. Six or eight at time moving across the sky in a straight line. As they reached a certain point they disappeared at the high point in the line, to be replaced by another coming in at the start of the line. Totally freaky I thought. The show stopped when the last one disappeared, after they stopped entering at the beginning of the line.

I had no idea what I had just seen, definitely a first in my lifetime. I checked my phone again, 5.29, so the thing only was visible to me for a couple of minutes. I went back to bed and lay awake for a while wondering what the hell.

Next day I posted on the Facebook Victor Harbor community site, describing what I'd seen and asking if anyone else had seen it, and did anyone have a clue to what it was. There were numerous answers posted. Only one other said they had seen it, and that it freaked them out. Several others knew what it was, apparently a series of satellites launched at the same time, 46 in all, an Elon Musk communication system (Starline or something). They are launched one after the other, must be in a straight line, till they reach a certain point then they disperse to their allotted location in space. One person said there's a launch every week for a while. Apparently this is to improve communications world wide. Someone said they are being used to greatly assist strategy in the current war in Europe. Someone else said that's a hell of a lot of future space junk.

I was relieved to have an explanation, and that it was not an alien invasion or foreign drone force preparing to attack. The average Joe really has no idea what could be going on in space. The mind boggles really if you think too hard. Let's hope whatever is happening is used for peaceful purposes not warfare for example targeting missile attacks. Certainly war will never be like the old days.