‘A great shot’: Manitoba hunter snaps awe-inspiring pic of satellite formation

A Manitoba hunter captured a photo showing a row of Starlink satellites over Manitoba shortly after launch.

Shirley Funk Carriere was up before sunrise on one brisk Friday earlier this month to go goose hunting.

As she set up in the dark near a freshly combined field north of Roblin, Man., something in the night sky caught her eye.

No, it wasn’t the day’s first chance for a take, but a row of evenly spaced, bright lights hovering in a diagonal line. She counted 19 of them, to be exact.

Funk Carriere quickly snapped a photo of the neatly arranged constellation, realizing the chance was fleeting.

Although to some, the visual might elicit the “X Files” theme song, Funk Carriere knew the site was not a paranormal one.

“Starlink satellites, launched by SpaceX, often appear shortly after a launch when the satellites are still close together before spreading out into their operational orbits,” she told CTV News in an email.

According to SpaceX’s website, the company launched 28 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Oct. 7 — just a few days before Funk Carriere snagged her shot.

“They can look like a ‘string of pearls’ moving smoothly across the sky and are visible for a few minutes before fading as they enter Earth’s shadow,” she recalled.

Satellites becoming common sights in Manitoba skies: astronomer

Manitoba Museum’s Planetarium astronomer Scott Young agrees with the hunter’s assessment of what she captured on camera that day.

He notes Elon Musk’s satellite internet constellation company launches dozens of such satellites a day. As immortalized by Funk Carriere’s lens, they begin in a big, well-organized line. After a week or so, they begin to spread out and move to higher altitudes, making them harder to see with the naked eye.

Unlike Funk Carriere, such “constellations” have baffled countless Manitobans — many of whom also snap a photo before sending it Young’s way for assessment, alien or otherwise.

“People have seen satellites in the sky for decades, and they know what those are, but when they’re all flying in this straight line, it’s a little bit more of a mystery to them.”

Young reckons such sights will become commonplace to sky gazers, as more telecoms enter the satellite Internet space race, crowding our skies even further.

Even so, the astronomer thinks Funk Carriere’s snap is, pardon the pun, out of this world.

“It’s a great shot,” he said.