Can I see Starlink tonight in Soweto?

No visible passes tonight.

Next good chance: Tuesday 13 Oct at 4:27 am, looking north.

Updated 7 Oct 2026, 16:02 UTCTimes in local time (SAST)-26.27°, 27.86°

Next pass · Tuesday 13 Oct

Appears

4:27 am

north, 17°

Highest

4:53 am

29° north-northeast

Fades

4:57 am

east-northeast, 11°

≈ mag 4 · moderateTrain · 24 satellitesLaunch 2026-225 · 28 September 2026

The next 8 nights at a glance

8 visible passes

4 pm6 pm8 pm10 pmmidnight2 am4 am6 am8 am

Tonight

Thu 8 Oct

Fri 9 Oct

Sat 10 Oct

Sun 11 Oct

Mon 12 Oct

Tue 13 Oct

Wed 14 Oct

dark skytraineasy (mag ≤ 3.5)moderate (≤ 4)faint (≤ 5)

Pass times, night by night

start · path · brightness

Tonight · Wednesday 7 Oct

dark 6:35 pm – 5:17 am

No visible passes tonight.

Thursday 8 Oct – Saturday 10 Oct

no visible passes

Sunday 11 Oct

dark 6:37 pm – 5:13 am

5:04 amto 5:08 am · 4 min

NNW → ENE, highest 20° NNEappears north-northwest at 11°, low at the top

≈ mag 4.5 · faintTrain · 1

Monday 12 Oct

dark 6:38 pm – 5:12 am

4:27 amto 4:57 am · 30 min

N → ENE, highest 29° NNEappears north at 17°, halfway up at the top

≈ mag 4 · moderateTrain · 24

Tuesday 13 Oct

dark 6:38 pm – 5:11 am

4:27 amto 4:30 am · 3 min

N → E, highest 33° NNEappears north at 30°, halfway up at the top

≈ mag 4 · moderateTrain · 1

4:47 amto 5:11 am · 24 min

NW → E, highest 71° NNEappears northwest at 20°, high at the top

≈ mag 2.5 · brightTrain · 22

Wednesday 14 Oct

dark 6:39 pm – 5:10 am

3:40 amto 4:05 am · 25 min

ENE → E, highest 31° NEappears east-northeast at 12°, halfway up at the top

≈ mag 4 · moderateTrain · 18

4:10 amto 4:12 am · 2 min

NE → E, highest 38° NEappears northeast at 38°, halfway up at the top

≈ mag 3.5 · easyTrain · 1

4:44 amto 4:48 am · 5 min

WNW → ESE, highest 81° Nappears west-northwest at 22°, almost overhead at the top

≈ mag 2.5 · brightTrain · 1

5:01 amto 5:10 am · 9 min

W → ESE, highest 72° SSWappears west at 12°, high at the top

≈ mag 2.5 · brightTrain · 6

Magnitude 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.

Seeing Starlink from Soweto

Soweto is at 26.3°S. Tonight the sky is dark enough from 6:35 pm until 5:17 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); 7 of them should be easy to spot (estimated magnitude 4 or brighter).

The best one is on Thursday 15 Oct at 4:44 am: it appears in the west-northwest, climbs to 81° in the north 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 296–315 km up): 8 passes here

Satellites from launch 2026-219 (20 September 2026) are also low and bright, but they do not pass over Soweto while it is dark and they are sunlit in this period.

Questions

Can I see Starlink tonight in Soweto?

No visible passes tonight. Next good chance: Tuesday 13 Oct at 4:27 am, looking north.

When is the next Starlink train over Soweto?

Monday 12 Oct at 5:04 am: 1 satellites from launch 2026-225, appearing in the north-northwest and reaching 20°.

Which direction should I look for Starlink from Soweto?

This week most passes appear in the north or north-northwest. Each pass above lists where it appears, how high it climbs and where it fades.

Nearby cities

All of South Africa →

Roodepoort 12 km Johannesburg 20 km Krugersdorp 22 km Randburg 24 km Evaton 30 km Germiston 31 km

Before you go out

How to spot Starlink What the Starlink train is Why some nights have nothing