The local space context of Birmingham 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 | 52.481° N, 1.900° W | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|---|
| population | 1,157,603 inhabitants | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aberporth Range | 184 km W (259°) | 52.138° N, 4.555° W | gcat-sites |
| Cornwall Airport Newquay | 313 km SW (225°) | 50.441° N, 5.008° W | gcat-sites |
| V-2 launch area, Serooskerke, Walcheren, Holland | 390 km ESE (103°) | 51.551° N, 3.590° E | gcat-sites |
| V-2 launch area near Den Haag-Wassenaar | 429 km E (93°) | 52.130° N, 4.380° E | gcat-sites |
| Vernon, Eure, France | 447 km SSE (147°) | 49.080° N, 1.480° E | gcat-sites |
| V-2 launch area, Stavorem, Friesland | 494 km E (82°) | 52.900° N, 5.400° E | gcat-sites |
| V-2 launch area, Beukenhorst mansion, Vught, Nederlanden | 500 km E (98°) | 51.624° N, 5.289° E | gcat-sites |
| Artillerie Schietkamp, t'Harde | 530 km E (88°) | 52.395° N, 5.923° E | gcat-sites |
| Zone de lancement SNLE, Baie d'Audierne | 561 km SSW (197°) | 47.630° N, 4.050° W | gcat-sites |
| V-2 launch area at Hellendoorn/Eelerberg | 564 km E (88°) | 52.410° N, 6.430° E | gcat-sites |
| V-2 launch area, Zwolle-Hellendoorn-Enschede | 566 km E (88°) | 52.400° N, 6.450° E | gcat-sites |
| Camp de Suippes, Marne, France | 584 km SE (127°) | 49.150° N, 4.530° E | gcat-sites |
| Zone de lancement SNLE, Golfe de Gascogne, Bretagne | 584 km SSW (200°) | 47.500° N, 4.500° W | gcat-sites |
| V-2 launch areas, Fraiture, Vielsalm, Ardennes | 586 km ESE (112°) | 50.258° N, 5.752° E | gcat-sites |
| V-2 launch area, Enschede, Nederlanden | 597 km E (89°) | 52.220° N, 6.890° E | gcat-sites |
| … and 17 more within 1000 km | |||
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| RFA One | Maiden Flight | 929 km N (4°) | 60.817° N, 0.763° W | launchlibrary |
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, 15,079 fly orbits whose ground track reaches 52.481° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other 8,172 never reach this latitude.
| space station | inclination | can pass overhead |
|---|---|---|
| Bai Xiang | 85.0° | yes |
| International Space Station (+3 docked records) | 51.6° | no — its track stops at 51.6° |
| Kosmos-382 | 55.9° | yes |
| Tianhe | 41.5° | no — its track stops at 41.5° |
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 30.0° 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 Birmingham in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.