Can I see Starlink tonight in Pretoria?
No visible passes tonight.
Next good chance: Tuesday 13 Oct at 4:25 am, looking north.
The next 8 nights at a glance
10 visible passesPass times, night by night
start · path · brightnessTonight · Wednesday 7 Oct
dark 6:33 pm – 5:16 amThursday 8 Oct – Saturday 10 Oct
no visible passesSunday 11 Oct
dark 6:35 pm – 5:12 amMonday 12 Oct
dark 6:36 pm – 5:11 amTuesday 13 Oct
dark 6:37 pm – 5:10 amWednesday 14 Oct
dark 6:37 pm – 5:09 amMagnitude 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 Pretoria →Yes — best chance 3:45 am, looking east-southeast. Visible from 3:45 am to 3:47 am, halfway up in the sky (29°) at its highest; about magnitude -1, as bright as the brightest stars. The space station is far brighter than Starlink satellites, so it is often the easier thing to spot.
Tiangong, China's space station
6 visible passes in 8 nightsNo visible pass of Tiangong over Pretoria tonight. Next: Thursday 8 Oct at 6:55 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 ≈ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday 8 Oct | 6:55 pm | 17° SSE | -0.5 |
| Friday 9 Oct | 7:32 pm | 62° S | -2 |
| Saturday 10 Oct | 6:34 pm | 31° SSE | -1 |
| Saturday 10 Oct | 8:10 pm | 16° WNW | 1.5 |
| Sunday 11 Oct | 7:10 pm | 48° NW | -1 |
| Tuesday 13 Oct | 6:49 pm | 20° NW | 0.5 |
Local time. Brightness is a rough estimate (±1 magnitude; lower is brighter). How we compute this.
Seeing Starlink from Pretoria
Pretoria is at 25.7°S. Tonight the sky is dark enough from 6:33 pm until 5:16 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 10 visible passes (0 in the evening, 10 before dawn); 8 of them should be easy to spot (estimated magnitude 4 or brighter).
The best one is on Thursday 15 Oct at 4:47 am: it appears in the west-northwest, climbs to 82° in the south-southeast and fades in the east-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): 10 passes here
Satellites from launch 2026-219 (20 September 2026) are also low and bright, but they do not pass over Pretoria while it is dark and they are sunlit in this period.
Questions
Can I see Starlink tonight in Pretoria?
No visible passes tonight. Next good chance: Tuesday 13 Oct at 4:25 am, looking north.
When is the next Starlink train over Pretoria?
Monday 12 Oct at 4:49 am: 2 satellites from launch 2026-225, appearing in the north and reaching 16°.
Which direction should I look for Starlink from Pretoria?
This week most passes appear in the north or northwest. Each pass above lists where it appears, how high it climbs and where it fades.