Stargazers have hit out at the “heartbreaking” sight of Starlink satellites.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX firm has launched 300 satellites in a bid to improve global internet coverage – and many people have noticed 60 of them in the night sky over the UK this month.
The Starlink project could eventually see as many as 42,000 SpaceX satellites launched – a prospect that terrifies a group of amateur astronomers in the Mendip Hills.
Among them is Josh Dury, of Compton Martin, who has made a short film to raise awareness of what he calls Starlink’s “pollution of the night sky”.
The University of the West of England filmmaking graduate first became aware of Musk’s venture last December, when he saw images of the satellites captured from the Netherlands.
Josh, 22, said: “It was a tight group of satellites that looked like a string of pearls. When I first saw it, I had quite an emotional response.
“It upset me heavily as an astronomer. The satellites were very bright and close together – it was quite disturbing to look at from an astronomical perspective.”
