Find Starlink Satellites 4+

Terrible tracker

I saw reviews saying that the app isn't accurate in the south of the UK so I decided to go outside and wait for the starlinks at 9:10pm instead of 9:34. I watched the satellite move from peru, across the sea, pass Ireland and pass where I was. I waited thinking the tracker may of been delayed, but no, I checked the app again and it passed where I was and was in Germany. Almost waited 45 minutes for nothing. I even texted a friend near Birmingham and she was waiting too, we both saw nothing. Do not get this app unless you want to be standing around like statues for ages and see nothing.

Developer Response ,

Hi, yes there was some unpredictability this week over Europe. The predicted timings were the same on all other satellite tracking tools. Some people saw the satellites, but many didn't. I've made changes to the calculations (updated yesterday), and hopefully it'll be better now. So far the user reports seem to indicate successful sightings, I hope that continues! Thanks, and sorry for the inconvenience.

Regarding the tracker, the satellites travel at 7km per second, and travel the entire globe in 90 minutes. So in 5 minutes, they can be 2000km away. But they can be seen from as far as 800km in the sky because they're so high up. The problem with the 9.34pm timing was it wasn't reflecting enough sunlight to be seen. I've improved the code to account for that.

I've written more about this at https://findstarlink.com/uk-failed-sightings.html

Thanks!

Basic

It’s okay, tells you where but doesn’t give an AR map or sky tracking

Absolutely useless

Not even dark when they are due over but app tells you they will be bright. Even on other days when they are apparently visible, completely clear sky, nothing. Completely wrong on every occasion.

Developer Response ,

Hi, sorry about that. I'm trying my best to keep the predictions accurate, but the company that owns these satellites is often turning them and preventing them from being seen: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52391758 .

Until the accuracy improves, I'm adding a warning message in the app to set expectations correctly, to try it at your own risk. You can try other Starlink tracking tools as well, they're facing the same problems.

I'm working on predicting what the company is going to do, but since I don't work for them, it's been difficult in the past few weeks to maintain high accuracy.

I understand it's frustrating to go outside and not see anything. While there are failed sightings, there are also lots of successful sightings every day (based on people emailing me). I'm sorry about the trouble caused to you, and am working hard to improve the accuracy.