findstarlink.com
FindStarlink.com is a free fan-made .com website that helps you find the best times to see SpaceX Starlink satellites moving across the sky from your location.
What does FindStarlink.com actually do?
FindStarlink.com predicts when visible Starlink satellites may pass over your city or geographic coordinates.
The main goal is simple: tell you when to go outside, where to look, and how bright the satellites may appear.
This makes the site useful for people who see a strange row of moving lights and want to know if it is Starlink.
The website clearly says it is a fan-made project and is not affiliated with SpaceX or Starlink.
Starlink itself is a large low-Earth-orbit satellite network built and operated by SpaceX to provide internet service.
You can read more about how these satellites work on the official Starlink technology page.
How do you find Starlink satellites above your location?
The home page lets you search by place name or enter your latitude and longitude.
You then press the “Find Visible Times” button to generate possible viewing times for your area.
The displayed times are already adjusted to your local time, so the site says you do not need to convert time zones yourself.
Each result can show the date, start time, viewing duration, brightness, direction, and elevation above the horizon.
You may see instructions such as looking from west to east or another pair of compass directions.
Elevation numbers tell you how high above the horizon you should look during the pass.
A higher maximum elevation normally places the satellite farther up in your visible sky rather than close to the horizon.
What do BRIGHT and DIM mean on FindStarlink.com?
FindStarlink.com separates passes into different visibility levels so you can quickly choose the most promising viewing opportunity.
A result marked BRIGHT should normally be easier to notice than one marked DIM.
The number shown beside the brightness label is an astronomical magnitude estimate.
In this scale, a smaller magnitude number means a brighter object.
This can feel backward at first because a magnitude of 1 is brighter than a magnitude of 5.
The site also groups predictions into good, average, and poor visibility sections.
For casual sky watching, I would focus on good visibility results before spending time on a poor prediction.
Why might you still miss a predicted Starlink pass?
FindStarlink.com itself warns that its predictions are not 100 percent accurate because satellite orbits can change.
It also says actual viewing times may differ by around ten minutes.
Clouds, haze, nearby buildings, trees, city lights, and your viewing angle can make a predicted pass harder to see.
A satellite also needs to reflect enough sunlight toward your position while the surrounding sky is dark enough.
This is why a satellite can physically pass through your part of the sky without becoming an obvious bright point.
Recently launched satellites are especially interesting because several spacecraft can remain close together and create the famous Starlink “train.”
As the satellites move toward separate operational orbits, that tight train becomes less noticeable.
What is the FindStarlink.com Live Map good for?
The site includes a Live Map that gives you a visual idea of where tracked Starlink groups are located.
It is useful for understanding movement, but the website recommends trusting the calculated results page instead of judging your viewing time only from the map.
Starlink satellites move extremely quickly around Earth, so their map position can change greatly within only a few minutes.
This also explains why another viewing opportunity can sometimes appear less than two hours after an earlier pass.
Does FindStarlink.com track every Starlink satellite?
No, the website explains that it focuses on representative satellites from visible groups rather than filling its interface with every individual spacecraft.
This approach makes sense because the most dramatic sightings happen when recently deployed satellites are still moving together.
Older Starlink groups gradually spread apart, so they stop looking like one bright train crossing the sky.
For a wider view of the Starlink constellation, you can compare FindStarlink with current information from Space.com’s Starlink tracking guide.
Is there a Find Starlink mobile app?
Yes, the same project has a Find Starlink Satellites mobile app for both major phone platforms.
The iPhone and iPad version adds features such as viewing reminders.
An Android version is also available through Google Play.
The app listings describe the mobile software as the official app version of the FindStarlink.com project rather than an official SpaceX application.
This distinction matters because people searching for “Starlink” may assume every Starlink-branded tracking tool belongs to SpaceX.
Is FindStarlink.com worth using?
FindStarlink.com is worth trying when your main goal is simply to know when a visible Starlink train could cross your local sky.
Its biggest strength is that it turns complex orbital movement into simple times, directions, brightness estimates, and viewing guidance.
Its main weakness is that a prediction cannot guarantee a sighting, so you should treat every displayed time as a practical estimate rather than an exact promise.
If you use the best visibility result, arrive outside several minutes early, find an open view of the sky, and follow the listed compass direction, FindStarlink.com can make Starlink spotting much easier for a first-time observer.