Amazing Sky by Alan Dyer

This is a demonstration of the crowded sky we now have, with all the trails being from Earth-orbiting satellites, with the exception of the tapered orange streak at lower right which is likely a meteor. This is a stack of 40 exposures taken over 70 minutes, layered to accumulate the satellite trails, not eliminate them, to show how many satellites crossed the field in the hour plus of the imaging. Are some SpaceX Starlinks? Perhaps, but there are many other satellites up there now.

The field is 11° by 7.5° (a telephoto lens or binocular field), and frames the constellation of Corona Borealis. I shot the frames in early May when from my latitude of 51° N the upper atmosphere is illuminated long after twlight ends down on Earth, so satellites remain visible. In this case, most were telescopic in brightness and not naked eye. Nevertheless, it shows how no photos now are free of satellites, especially when taken at higher latitudes during the weeks around the summer solstice.

Technical:
This is a stack of 40 x 2-minute and 1.5-minute exposures with the Askar FMA180 Pro astrographic refractor (with 180mm focal length) at f/4.5 and the Canon R5 at ISO 1600. Tracked but unguided on the Astro-Physics AP400 mount. Taken from home May 3, 2024. The field also contains many short faint vertical streaks (visible only upon very close inspection) that are from hot pixels on the camera sensor, and turned into streaks due to the mount drifting in declination slightly from less than precise polar alignment and no auto-guiding.