The local space context of Sofia 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 | 42.697° N, 23.324° E | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|---|
| population | 1,152,556 inhabitants | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Akhtopol Meteorological Rocket Station | 386 km E (99°) | 42.084° N, 27.952° E | gcat-sites |
| Nissaki-Karystos, Evvoia, Hellas | 529 km S (170°) | 38.010° N, 24.420° E | gcat-sites |
| Jupiter sites, Gioia del Colle, Italy | 573 km WSW (250°) | 40.760° N, 16.930° E | gcat-sites |
| Ushakov Expedition 6, 1978 | 626 km E (84°) | 43.000° N, 31.000° E | gcat-sites |
| Alibey Test Range, Odessa, Ukraine | 640 km NE (55°) | 45.815° N, 30.084° E | gcat-sites |
| Koroni, Peloponnisos, Hellas (beach launch area) | 669 km S (191°) | 36.770° N, 21.950° E | gcat-sites |
| NATO Missile Firing Installation (NAMFI) | 793 km S (174°) | 35.600° N, 24.200° E | gcat-sites |
| Truppenubungsplatz Heidelager, Blizna, Krakow, Polska | 842 km N (353°) | 50.200° N, 21.800° E | gcat-sites |
| Chernoye More (Black Sea) submarine test launch area | 875 km ENE (77°) | 44.000° N, 34.000° E | gcat-sites |
| Sinop missile test site, Turkey | 977 km E (90°) | 42.031° N, 35.190° E | gcat-sites |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evpatoria RT-70 | 836 km ENE (67°) | 45.189° N, 33.187° E | signals |
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, 19,910 fly orbits whose ground track reaches 42.697° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other 3,341 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 40.7° 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 Sofia in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.