The night of 2026-08-20

A quiet night, even though a Starlink train has been visible since its launch 44 hours ago, which is the most commonly reported "string of lights" there is.

Measured

What was genuinely in the sky

• A Starlink train was visible: Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-50, launched 44 hours before. The most commonly reported "string of lights" there is.
• The Delta Aquariids meteor shower was active.
• The Perseids meteor shower was active.
• The moon was waxing, 53% lit.

What the instruments recorded

The Global Meteor Network's cameras, 1,300 of them across 42 countries, computed 3,581 meteor trajectories for this night, 754 of them over North America, led by the Perseids with 189.

This section is added about a week after the night itself, because computing trajectories from camera data takes that long. Instrument data: Global Meteor Network (CC BY 4.0).

Talked about that day

• Someone in the room: 37 public posts
• Glitches in the matrix: 9 public posts
• Lights and orbs: 5 public posts
• Shadow people: 2 public posts
• Something in the woods: 1 public posts