[jniedrauer]

Rural areas in the PNW are about a 2 on the Bortle scale, and the stars are strikingly vivid. The first time I saw Starlink with my own eyes, I was making an alpine start on Mt St Helens. The cluster of satellites against a backdrop of bright stars was breathtaking, and I got this powerful sense that we were truly conquering the heavens. You could call this another form of light pollution, but it made a pretty big impression on me. It felt more like science fiction than reality.

[emj]

I'm guessing there is a local effect of the Bortle scale because when the skies were clear we clearly saw about 30 Starlink sattelites and according to https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/ we live in an area with Bortle class 8-9, the algorithm for calculating the Bortle class seems to be a bit work intensive. https://www.handprint.com/ASTRO/bortle.html

[theowshxhfb]

Starling visibility is due to how far up they are and only visible for a while after launch. Once they're in position you shouldn't be able to see them.