The local space context of Taiyuan 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 | 37.869° N, 112.560° E | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|---|
| population | 5,305,061 inhabitants | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taiyuan weixing fashe zhongxin | 41 km S (175°) | 37.500° N, 112.600° E | gcat-sites |
| 806th Brigade missile base, Huanglong, Shaanxi province | 326 km SW (216°) | 35.474° N, 110.447° E | gcat-sites |
| Space Pioneer Gongyi Static Test Site | 354 km S (173°) | 34.709° N, 113.051° E | gcat-sites |
| 822 Brigade missile base, Laiwu, Shangdong province | 492 km ESE (110°) | 36.235° N, 117.716° E | gcat-sites |
| 51St Base, Fengrun, Tangshan, Hebei province | 527 km ENE (64°) | 39.856° N, 118.093° E | gcat-sites |
| Bayan Hot test range | 614 km WNW (281°) | 38.758° N, 105.608° E | gcat-sites |
| Jilantai Missile Test Ground, Nei Monggol province | 643 km WNW (292°) | 39.850° N, 105.580° E | gcat-sites |
| Bohai launch area (Some Yellow Sea launches may also be here) | 732 km E (82°) | 38.500° N, 120.900° E | gcat-sites |
| Jianggezhuang Submarine Base | 738 km ESE (103°) | 36.104° N, 120.579° E | gcat-sites |
| Haiyang test site, Shandong | 773 km E (96°) | 36.800° N, 121.200° E | gcat-sites |
| Huludao Shipyard test site | 775 km ENE (63°) | 40.700° N, 120.800° E | gcat-sites |
| Sainshand meteorological rocket station | 806 km NNW (346°) | 44.890° N, 110.140° E | gcat-sites |
| Jinzhou missile base, Liaoning province | 825 km ENE (61°) | 41.190° N, 121.170° E | gcat-sites |
| 410 Brigate Missile Base, Dengshahe, Liaoning province | 839 km ENE (77°) | 39.229° N, 122.054° E | gcat-sites |
| Huang Hai CZ-11 launch zone | 840 km ESE (111°) | 34.900° N, 121.190° E | gcat-sites |
| … and 3 more within 1000 km | |||
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| MUSCOVY | 318 km ESE (106°) | 37.017° N, 115.995° 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, 20,012 fly orbits whose ground track reaches 37.869° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other 3,239 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 46.1° 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 Taiyuan in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.