The local space context of Chicago 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 | 41.850° N, 87.650° W | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|---|
| population | 2,664,452 inhabitants | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wurtsmith AFB | 451 km NE (49°) | 44.452° N, 83.380° W | gcat-sites |
| Keweenaw Rocket Launch Site (KRLS), Michigan | 620 km N (360°) | 47.430° N, 87.720° W | gcat-sites |
| Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas | 866 km SSW (208°) | 34.900° N, 92.150° W | gcat-sites |
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, 19,939 fly orbits whose ground track reaches 41.850° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other 3,312 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° | 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 41.7° 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 Chicago in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.