I may have blown the math, but the last time I calculated I figured there were about 35 Starlink satellites above the horizon at my latitude. Looking into the suburban early night sky I see zero, one, or two satellites with about equal probability.
I think the hypothesis this leads to is that the "don't shine" techniques Starlink is using are working. I'm guessing the ones I see are either not Starlink or are Starlinks transitioning to their working orbit (they don't do full "dark mode" until they are in place.) If in place units shown I'd see a lot more.
So at least, maybe it won't all be gloom and doom. But if it is all gloom, at least it will have little sparkles floating around it.
Just a note, if you want a special whimsical typeface, there are any number of talented folk on fiverr and similar that will make you one. Well worth it. For the cost of a lunch I got this turned into a font that I really like…
"Imagine an advanced alien race of octopus-like creatures who don't use writing. They encounter humans, enslave some and take them on their spaceships, but find they have to label things for the humans to read. Make me a font that is how these creatures would approximate our writing systems by miming the letters with their tentacles."
It's a glorious sinuous typeface which I use for labeling drawers and bins in my semi-industrial space.
It sounds like this corresponds to an atmospheric contraction. They are lowering to avoid extending the lifetime of possible debris, but that also probably means the regular lifetime is not shortened. They are just staying in the designed density to match their designed service lives. The field of view of the satellites will be reduced, but presumably they have enough units up there to maintain full coverage.
This is distinct from the FCC application they have made for another Starlink shell in VLEO (~330km) for another 15000 satellites to better serve cellular phones.
At 45°N latitude, I keep mine nearly vertical year round. I used to adjust them 4 times a year for more optimal production. There are issues beyond angle of incidence. Being nearly vertical keeps the snow off in the winter. In the summer it reduces the cleaning required (it's a sea bird rookery, so that's kind of a lot). Beyond that, the telemetry needs are constant year round so if the panels can cover the needs in the winter, then summer is no problem.
My current strategy for small installations when you have an equator facing wall or fence is slap the panels on it and be done with it.
There’s nothing to be done about winter, that is the “regular” time and you live in the north. You only get the sun above the horizon for 9 hours a day in late December.
The summer 9pm is the advantage of daylight savings. You get the sun up for 15 hours a day! Norther summer is great. Without daylight savings time, you’d get dark at 8pm in the summer and have an hour of “wasted” daylight before you got up. The “savings” part is to take the wasted light while you are sleeping and move it to the evening when you can enjoy it.
It does cause confusion though, and having implemented daylight savings code there are a bewildering number of rules around the world, there are even places that have double daylight savings. They shift once, then shift again for a two hour offset.
I think the hypothesis this leads to is that the "don't shine" techniques Starlink is using are working. I'm guessing the ones I see are either not Starlink or are Starlinks transitioning to their working orbit (they don't do full "dark mode" until they are in place.) If in place units shown I'd see a lot more.
So at least, maybe it won't all be gloom and doom. But if it is all gloom, at least it will have little sparkles floating around it.