Can I see Starlink tonight in Thembisa?

No visible passes tonight.

Next good chance: Tuesday 13 Oct at 4:25 am, looking north.

Updated 7 Oct 2026, 18:36 UTCTimes in local time (SAST)-26.00°, 28.23°

Next pass · Tuesday 13 Oct

Appears

4:25 am

north, 16°

Highest

4:48 am

28° north-northeast

Fades

4:50 am

east-northeast, 11°

≈ mag 4 · moderateTrain · 22 satellitesLaunch 2026-225 · 28 September 2026

The next 8 nights at a glance

10 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 6:33 pm – 5:16 am

No visible passes tonight.

Thursday 8 Oct – Saturday 10 Oct

no visible passes

Sunday 11 Oct

dark 6:36 pm – 5:12 am

4:49 amto 4:52 am · 3 min

N → ENE, highest 16° NNEappears north at 11°, low at the top

≈ mag 5 · faintTrain · 2

Monday 12 Oct

dark 6:36 pm – 5:11 am

4:25 amto 4:50 am · 25 min

N → ENE, highest 28° NNEappears north at 16°, halfway up at the top

≈ mag 4 · moderateTrain · 22

4:55 amto 4:59 am · 5 min

NW → E, highest 33° NNEappears northwest at 12°, halfway up at the top

≈ mag 3.5 · easyTrain · 2

Tuesday 13 Oct

dark 6:37 pm – 5:10 am

4:15 amto 4:17 am · 3 min

NNE → E, highest 29° NNEappears north-northeast at 29°, halfway up at the top

≈ mag 4 · moderateTrain · 1

4:30 amto 4:34 am · 4 min

NNW → E, highest 38° NNEappears north-northwest at 29°, halfway up at the top

≈ mag 3.5 · easyTrain · 1

4:37 amto 5:10 am · 32 min

NW → E, highest 76° Nappears northwest at 24°, almost overhead at the top

≈ mag 2.5 · brightTrain · 24

Wednesday 14 Oct

dark 6:37 pm – 5:09 am

3:40 amto 4:00 am · 20 min

ENE → E, highest 29° ENEappears east-northeast at 15°, halfway up at the top

≈ mag 4.5 · faintTrain · 10

4:32 amto 4:36 am · 4 min

NW → ESE, highest 71° NNWappears northwest at 41°, high at the top

≈ mag 2.5 · brightTrain · 1

4:47 amto 5:07 am · 20 min

WNW → ESE, highest 86° SSEappears west-northwest at 23°, almost overhead at the top

≈ mag 2.5 · brightTrain · 11

5:07 amto 5:09 am · 2 min

W → WSW, highest 36° WSWappears west at 11°, halfway up at the top

≈ mag 3 · easyTrain · 3

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 Thembisa

Thembisa is at 26.0°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 86° 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 Thembisa while it is dark and they are sunlit in this period.

Questions

Can I see Starlink tonight in Thembisa?

No visible passes tonight. Next good chance: Tuesday 13 Oct at 4:25 am, looking north.

When is the next Starlink train over Thembisa?

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 Thembisa?

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

Nearby cities

All of South Africa →

Benoni 23 km Boksburg 24 km Randburg 25 km Germiston 25 km Pretoria 28 km Johannesburg 29 km

Also tonight: the ISS

ISS pass times for Thembisa →

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.

Before you go out

ISS tonight in Thembisa How to spot Starlink What the Starlink train is Why some nights have nothing