Can I see Starlink tonight in Mombasa?
Yes — best chance 5:37 am, looking west-northwest.
It is the Starlink train: 5 satellites in a line. Visible from 5:37 am to 5:43 am, almost overhead in the sky (78°) at its highest; bright enough to see from a city.
The next 8 nights at a glance
8 visible passesPass times, night by night
start · path · brightnessTonight · Wednesday 7 Oct
dark 6:35 pm – 5:43 amThursday 8 Oct
dark 6:35 pm – 5:42 amFriday 9 Oct
dark 6:35 pm – 5:42 amSaturday 10 Oct
dark 6:35 pm – 5:41 amSunday 11 Oct – Wednesday 14 Oct
no visible passesMagnitude is an estimate (lower = brighter; 3 is easy, 5 needs a dark sky). Predictions for satellites that are still raising their orbits can shift by a few minutes from one update to the next; check again before you go out. How we compute this.
The ISS tonight
ISS pass times for Mombasa →Yes — best chance 4:48 am, looking south-southeast. Visible from 4:48 am to 4:52 am, low in the sky (13°) at its highest; about magnitude 1, easy to see, even from a city. The space station is far brighter than Starlink satellites, so it is often the easier thing to spot.
Tiangong, China's space station
2 visible passes in 8 nightsNo visible pass of Tiangong over Mombasa tonight. Next: Tuesday 13 Oct at 7:55 pm. It orbits about 386 km up, tilted 41.5° to the equator, and looks like a bright, steady star gliding across the sky.
| Night | Appears | Highest | Mag ≈ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday 13 Oct | 7:55 pm | 16° SW | 1.5 |
| Wednesday 14 Oct | 6:56 pm | 27° SE | -1.5 |
Local time. Brightness is a rough estimate (±1 magnitude; lower is brighter). How we compute this.
Seeing Starlink from Mombasa
Mombasa is at 4.1°S. Tonight the sky is dark enough from 6:35 pm until 5:43 am. A Starlink satellite only shows when it is still in sunlight while you are in darkness, so the passes bunch up in the first hours after dusk and the last hours before dawn, not around midnight. Over the next 8 nights we found 8 visible passes (0 in the evening, 8 before dawn); 6 of them should be easy to spot (estimated magnitude 4 or brighter).
The best one is on Thursday 8 Oct at 5:37 am: it appears in the west-northwest, climbs to 78° in the south and fades in the southeast at about magnitude 2.5.
The passes come from these launches:
- 2026-225, launched 28 September 2026 (train, 26 satellites, now 296–316 km up): 8 passes here
Satellites from launch 2026-219 (20 September 2026) are also low and bright, but they do not pass over Mombasa while it is dark and they are sunlit in this period.
Questions
Can I see Starlink tonight in Mombasa?
Yes — best chance 5:37 am, looking west-northwest. It is the Starlink train: 5 satellites in a line. Visible from 5:37 am to 5:43 am, almost overhead in the sky (78°) at its highest; bright enough to see from a city.
When is the next Starlink train over Mombasa?
Thursday 8 Oct at 5:23 am: 4 satellites from launch 2026-225, appearing in the northwest and reaching 75°.
Which direction should I look for Starlink from Mombasa?
This week most passes appear in the west or northwest. Each pass above lists where it appears, how high it climbs and where it fades.