The local space context of Bikaner as this registry holds it — the catalogued human footprint on the ground around it, the orbits that can pass overhead, and the geostationary belt seen from here.
| position | 28.018° N, 73.315° E | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|---|
| population | 644,406 inhabitants | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tilla Firing Range, Malute, Jhelum region, Punjab, Pakistan | 598 km N (360°) | 33.400° N, 73.300° E | gcat-sites |
| Sonmiani Range, Sonmiani Beach, Baluchistan, Pakistan | 724 km WSW (246°) | 25.200° N, 66.750° E | gcat-sites |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pokhran | 185 km WSW (237°) | 27.100° N, 71.750° E | nuclear-tests |
| Ras Koh (Chagai) | 822 km W (278°) | 28.760° N, 64.950° E | nuclear-tests |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smiling Buddha | 189 km WSW (237°) | 27.080° N, 71.720° E | nukes |
| SHAKTI 1-3 | 191 km WSW (237°) | 27.070° N, 71.700° E | nuclear-tests |
| SHAKTI4 | 191 km WSW (237°) | 27.070° N, 71.700° E | nuclear-tests |
| Chagai-I | 824 km W (278°) | 28.830° N, 64.940° E | nukes |
| PAKISTAN test 2450964 | 935 km W (275°) | 28.490° N, 63.780° E | nuclear-tests |
Distances are great-circle on a sphere of mean radius 6,371 km; bearings are initial true bearings from the city. Each position is the source catalogue's own, read back from the registry.
Of the 23,251 artificial objects the registry places in Earth orbit on 2026-10-18, 20,403 fly orbits whose ground track reaches 28.018° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other 2,848 never reach this latitude.
| space station | inclination | can pass overhead |
|---|---|---|
| Bai Xiang | 85.0° | yes |
| International Space Station (+3 docked records) | 51.6° | yes |
| Kosmos-382 | 55.9° | yes |
| Tianhe | 41.5° | yes |
Computed: an orbit's equatorial inclination bounds the latitudes its track reaches (inclination i, or 180° − i when retrograde), from the orbital elements the registry holds. «Can pass overhead» is geometry, not a schedule — when, and whether it is lit and visible, depends on the hour.
The geostationary belt arcs across the southern sky and stands 57.3° above the horizon due south — the elevation to aim at for a satellite at this city's own longitude. Computed: spherical Earth (equatorial radius 6,378.137 km), circular orbit of one sidereal day (42,164 km); good to a few tenths of a degree.
/sim.html#sel=EARTH&tn=1,
then stand at Bikaner in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.