Thoughts on Starlink

[Vishal Kasliwal]

I had a chance to use Starlink over 3 nights spent at IchthyoSTAR-2025 in the middle of the NV desert & here are my thoughts!

As much as I've hated Musk's Cockroaches-In-the-Sky in the past, the idea of disappearing into the Nevada desert for a prolonged period with no connectivity posed its fair share of problems. First of all, personal safety. My wife just wasn't comfortable with not knowing where I was. Of course, she knew where I was going, but given the 375-mile driving distance, she was acutely aware that a lot can go wrong before even getting there. Then there's the 3 nights and 2 days I'd be spending there - the NV desert is home to rattlesnakes and scorpions, to say nothing of sub-zero temperatures forecast for Saturday night. Suffice to say that she felt a lot more comfortable with my trip if I could have connectivity while I was there. A second consideration was my comfort level in leaving my family behind ast home by themselves. While we live in a safer part of San Jose, in one of the safest states in the country, as they say - shit happens - and I felt a lot better knowing that my wife was just a phone call away. Lastly there's the problem with taking time off work for a hobby. Although we all need our vacations, I'd argue that it's selfish to waste precious vacation time on a personal hobby as opposed to family trips. Lastly, there's the question of how to keep yourself entertained if the weather turns sour and astronomy is no longer viable - a problem that we sadly had to deal with on this trip. 

Starlink solves all of these problems!

I got the Standard kit with a Roam plan. The Standard kit features slightly larger HW than the Starlink Mini, but I think the extra BW is totally worth the larger size & extra weight. Emmanuelle & Patrick have the Mini, so perhaps they can share their experience with the Mini. I got the Starlink Standard Backpack, which is slightly pricey, but is really great at protecting the gear while making it easy to quickly set up. The Roam plan is fantastic - you can turn it on and off as required. It used to cost $50/month for 50 GB of data ($1/GB over 50 GB), but now there is a new $10/month option which offers 10 GB of data ($2/GB over 10 GB)that I think is even better suited for monthly trips for observing. There is an unlimited data option for $165 for power users.

Starlink just worked.... No dropouts, no loss-of-network, nothing.... My friends, Creighton & Grant, worked all day Monday using Starlink, BW was very healthy at over 200 Gbps and they were able to do multiple video calls while sharing multiple screens, all without issue. The only time that we had a snag was when I, stupidly, tried creating an extra guest network in the middle of a call which caused the router to take all networks down for about 2 minutes. Don't create new networks when someone has a critical use for the service & you should be fine. On Sunday, we realized that the weather wasn't going to permit astronomy & decided to watch a movie. Downloading a 3-hr movie from Amazon Prime at Best Quality worked without a snap! Any drawbacks? - The router is a very basic router that doesn't have features such as setting up BW or data limits on guest networks. I ran my unit off've a Jackery Explorer 1000v2 with 2 x Jackery SolarSaga 200W panels, and although I didn't keep the Starlink on 24-7, I could have.

Final thoughts - Starlink is a game changer for us, allowing us to comfortably be out in the field for multiple nights without sacrificing connectivity or work. It's the equivalent of going from diesel power to nuclear power for submarines - food and water are now the limiting factors!!!

[Alex]

Thank you for sharing, Vishal. Being WFH myself I can clearly see benefits of a good bandwidth AP readily available in the field for many important occasions. Even in less rural locations like nearby campgrounds where some 5G/4G connectivity is functional it gets saturated very quickly, causing hiccups for VC or project files pulling, which should not be a problem with the StarLink for at least a decade ahead. That's true for solo trips only though. If every one of us at the Berlin IchthyoSTAR would bring a sat dish we might hit the same bandwidth problem as the cell Internet. Thus, it's more viable to plan ahead and share one link for a larger area group over WiFi as we do for the GSSP camp (though with the directed antenna 5G link, iirc). For that you want a dedicated router box with good power for the coverage (for large houses) set up centrally in the camp, preferably on a high rise pole/mast probably with the dedicated PSU (similar to the GSSP setup). The added benefit is that we could utilize the router bandwidth for the local network sharing. E.g. organize simple peer-to-peer services like messages and content exchange (e.g. I had a 512GB SD card of movies/shows with me) without occupying the Sat link at all or only sparingly for some common tasks.

Surely some etiquette for sharing the AP should be developed as well to make it all working smoothly (e.g. bandwidth is dedicated for work in the day time, entertainment in the evening, astronomy at night,... and so on). E.g. I knew we had some folks bringing SL to Ichtyo, but I didn't know whom exactly to ask if I would need to use one (I would write to this list and ask of course, as I had an OK 4G signal, but in general it would be better announcing any prerequisites/contacts upfront).

Just my 2c.

[Vishal Kasliwal]

I should have done my research on using the Starlink before leaving home, but alas, time is always at a premium. I was hoping to set the guest network up once I was at BISP, and set a BW limit,  but I didn't realize that the Standard Starlink Router does not support BW limits. The idea was for all Starlink owners in our group to use a common naming scheme for the guest network and the same password,  e.g. Network ID: IchthyoStar-Guest01 with Password: !chthy0s4ur$4r3C00l!!

In the future, when we organize another such trip,  perhaps Starlink owners can bring along a spare router for the guest network. It would make sense for us to set a naming scheme and publicize it on TAC - almost like a callsign on ham radio. We can set the password using a mix of the location and date.  That way,  you can go out in the field reasonably expecting connectivity and not even have to worry about what the password is,  etc....

Vishal

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[Akarsh Simha]

I have also been considering biting the bullet and getting starlink after I anneal into a routine with my job.

The startup cost is the high one.

For personal safety, an alternative is Garmin InReach. I’ve had one for over 4 years now and I always let my folks know where I am and what I’m up to, and they can message me back 

[Bill Haddon]

Before expressing unbridled enthusiasm for Starlink please read the following BBC report: 

Dr Bill Haddon, Taylor Observatory/ Norton Planetarium 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 26, 2025, at 6:46 PM, Akarsh Simha <akars...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Vishal Kasliwal]

It's actually remarkably cheap for what it is. You only need the Standard Starlink kit which is $349. The backpack is optional at $199, which I agree is overpriced,  but at the end of the day,  it is very nice for keeping the whole kit safe, organized, and quick to setup. 

At $349 for the basic kit,  it's cheaper than most premium eyepieces. What do you think will let you see more things? A shiny new Delos ($407) used 1/month when you can get away from work,  or the Starlink which will let you spend days working remotely? The startup cost goes up once you factor in the cost of a decent-sized solar battery ($699 for a 1 kWHr EcoFlow Delta 3 Plus Portable Power Station + $360 for 2x BALDR 200W Solar Panels), but I still think the increase in how much time you can spend outside is worth the investment. 

The limiting factors become food and water, just like when subs transitioned from diesel to nuclear power. 

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[Vishal Kasliwal]

That's why I called them 'Cockroaches in the Sky'.

But the sad truth is that no one gives a rat's ass about destroying our view of the Universe. Like it or not,  Starlink is here to stay. What we can hope for,  is that with enough pressure and international cooperation, we can get the satellites to be less reflective, perhaps using something like Vanta Black paint.

Vishal

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[Peter Santangeli]

Interesting timing....

I picked up Starlink a few months ago and for the first time I'm at GSSP with it. I too REALLY struggled with giving one of Mr Musk's companies money. And as an imager I am still shocked at the number of starlink trails I get.  Unfortunately my job is one that I frequently need to be in touch. We had been happily using a 4G cell booster on the van, and still have it, but (spoiler alert) it may be getting removed.

I picked up a refurbished Starlink Mini from Starlink for $369 (I seem to recall). It's in perfect condition. The only difference I can see is the typical refurb plain brown box. I'm on the Roam 50 plan as well.

I have it mounted at the top, front of my Promaster based class B RV.  They sell a $25 removable mobile mounting kit that was fine (though the design is not what I would have done, it seems totally solid, and is easily detached/re-attached - which became needed 2 nights ago - more on that later). I'm powering it off the house batteries through a 20v buck converter (more than 12, less than 48v is recommended).

It connects quickly. And gives me 150+mbs down, 10+ up. Totally fine for just about anything. Even while driving. The app is well done and easy to use, giving me all the options I need. One note - setting the same SSID and PW as home on the access point was NOT enough for our devices to connect to it. Still haven't figured that out, as it is a trick I have used before. It caused some last minute network craziness with headless devices out in the field, but I got through it. 

The biggest disadvantage I've seen (at least for the mini) is the wifi side of it. I'm not the only one online to notice, but the range of the wifi signal is.... terrible.  I have it mounted outside on the cab of a 20.5 ft van. My gear is probably 20 ft at most behind the van. So 35 or so unobstructed feet.   And terrible signal - not good enough for remote desktop. Enough that half way through the first night I was climbing a ladder up the van to take it down, and move it out amidst the telescopes.  Fine for sitting right by it (it's got no issues from the front seats of the van), but that's about it. 

Fortunately, I have my old router here. A very good G-Link unit with external antennas. I was able to configure that as a range extender and all was very good last night. Even the router/repeater though, which is inside the van at the back, does not get full bars. Enough, but not full.

With that in mind though, it is admittedly very impressive technology. So good that I no longer have excuses to miss ANY zoom calls with work... :-(

pete

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[Akarsh Simha]

I agree with Vishal. Nobody give’s a rat’s ass about astronomy, very unfortunately. Just like we are losing the battle against light pollution, we will lose this one too.

BTW to anyone that remote works on a metered connection, I recommend TripMode and n MacOS. You can install it from brew and it costs $18 after the trial expires. Prevents your IT departments tools from forcing updates and busting your bandwidth 

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[Vishal Kasliwal]

The Standard Router has ~ 100 ft of range as verified by us at BISP. We were able to get a workable signal at the toilet from the pergola at campsite #8. They do sell a standalone mini-router. 

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[Vishal Kasliwal]

Oh that's useful to know!!! Is there an equivalent for windows? I hate IT buggers - self-important SOBs...

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[Jeff Crilly]

>
> On Jun 26, 2025, at 3:46 PM, Akarsh Simha <akars...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 

> I have also been considering biting the bullet and getting starlink after I anneal into a routine with my job.
>
> The startup cost is the high one.

Consider getting a used SL. I bought the gen2 “used” for about half list price years ago (before the mini and standard landed.). Ppl with SL ant home are switching from SL to fixed wireless , which is going to be cheaper — just a matter of when they can get the alternative. The older gen2 works fine and seems to have really good WiFi. I feel like it’s a bit power hungry, tho it only showed about 45 watts draw. It’s also AC only (unless you do some hacking to get 48v / 150 watts into a custom POE injector.)
-jeff

[Ted Hauter]

A ray of sunshine in this (a bad use of words excuse me) is that Musk and the others keep sending this stuff up because it re enters at some point. Burn baby burn...

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[John Pierce]

On Fri, Jun 27, 2025 at 8:37 PM Ted Hauter <thgo...@gmail.com> wrote:

A ray of sunshine in this (a bad use of words excuse me) is that Musk and the others keep sending this stuff up because it re enters at some point. Burn baby burn...

except they are launching more faster than it reenters. 

[Akarsh Simha]

Starlink Mini units are on sale at $230. I wish I’d waited.

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