The night of 2026-08-26

2 independent people marked something in the last day, a little more than usual. Worth knowing first: a Starlink train has been visible since its launch 39 hours ago, which is the most commonly reported "string of lights" there is; the moon is full. That may be exactly what people are seeing.

Measured

What was genuinely in the sky

• A Starlink train was visible: Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-49, launched 39 hours before. The most commonly reported "string of lights" there is.
• A Starlink train was visible: Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-22, launched 15 hours before. The most commonly reported "string of lights" there is.
• The moon was full, 99% lit. Geomagnetic activity was quiet, Kp 1.

What the instruments recorded

The Global Meteor Network's cameras, 1,300 of them across 42 countries, computed 1,192 meteor trajectories for this night, 215 of them over North America, led by the NUE with 23.

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

• The hat man and the old hag: 100+ public posts
• Someone in the room: 28 public posts
• Glitches in the matrix: 7 public posts
• Dreams that will not stay dreams: 4 public posts
• Something in the woods: 2 public posts
• Shadow people: 1 public posts
• Unexplained booms: 1 public posts