8/19/25: Starlink Group 10-29 train above Derby Fire glow
Starlink satellite train (Group 10-29) rise over the horizon, with glow from the Derby Fire (Eagle Cty, CO), captured on 8/19/25.

8/19/25: Starlink Group 10-29 train above Derby Fire glow

Happened to catch Group 1o-29 Starlink satellites rising above the glow of the Derby wildfire, and it was again a set of the new v2 Optimized spacecraft that reflect a green color, rather than the former blue color of the prior v2 Minis. The Derby wildfire in Eagle County had started two days before, and it happened to flare up brightly as the satellites rose from the horizon. The composite image above consists of 73 frames captured over the 17 minutes it took the 28 satellites to traverse the field of view of the 28mm lens. As the 28 satellites progressed above the horizon, they moved from east to west, and thus the left-most tracks are brighter, as they were closer to the location of the sun (which was -23° below the horizon at 312° azimuth). Starlink satellites tend to flare brightly when the sun is ~18-38° below the horizon, and the spacecraft are directly above. In this case the satellites are 53° inclination Starlinks that were launched on 7/30/35 from Cape Canaveral, and only the satellites from the launch were composited into the final image (due to personal time constraints).

As you can see in the time-lapse video below, the satellites emerged from the horizon in the exact position where the Derby wildfire caused an intermittent glow due to flareups. Note that as soon as the satellite train is gone, a huge puff of smoke rises from the horizon, and looks almost like the smoke from a fireworks show:

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