The local space context of Chunian 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 | 30.966° N, 73.979° E | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|---|
| population | 634,236 inhabitants | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tilla Firing Range, Malute, Jhelum region, Punjab, Pakistan | 278 km NNW (347°) | 33.400° N, 73.300° E | gcat-sites |
| Sonmiani Range, Sonmiani Beach, Baluchistan, Pakistan | 956 km SW (230°) | 25.200° N, 66.750° E | gcat-sites |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pokhran | 481 km SSW (207°) | 27.100° N, 71.750° E | nuclear-tests |
| Ras Koh (Chagai) | 904 km WSW (257°) | 28.760° N, 64.950° E | nuclear-tests |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smiling Buddha | 485 km SSW (208°) | 27.080° N, 71.720° E | nukes |
| SHAKTI 1-3 | 487 km SSW (208°) | 27.070° N, 71.700° E | nuclear-tests |
| SHAKTI4 | 487 km SSW (208°) | 27.070° N, 71.700° E | nuclear-tests |
| TELKEM-2 | 766 km NNE (28°) | 37.000° N, 78.000° E | nuclear-tests |
| Chagai-I | 903 km WSW (257°) | 28.830° N, 64.940° E | nukes |
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, 20,256 fly orbits whose ground track reaches 30.966° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other 2,995 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 53.9° 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 Chunian in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.