Space AtlasWhat satellites are above me right now?
At any moment, about 1,050 tracked satellites are above your horizon, out of 22,325 objects in orbit. Here is your sky, live.
satellites are above the horizon from a typical spot. Counting yours…
●LEO●MEO●GEO●HEOLooking up: zenith in the center, north at the top.
Counts the 16,922 objects tracked with current orbital elements, from the public CelesTrak catalog. Your location is used once to compute this and is never stored. Privacy
How many satellites are above me?
Fewer than you might think, and more than you can see. Counting the 16,922 objects tracked with current orbital elements, between about 910 and 1,170 are above the horizon at any moment from cities on every continent, and around 440 of those are Starlink. Only 46 to 235 sit high overhead, above 45°, with the most near the equator, where the geostationary ring arcs high across the sky.
Most of them are too faint for the naked eye. A satellite shows up only while the Sun lights it and your sky is dark, which is why the hours after sunset and before sunrise are the time to look. On a clear evening away from city lights you can still spot dozens in an hour.
Satellite, plane or star? A quick guide
One steady point of light, no flashing, silent, gliding in a straight line across the sky in a few minutes.
Blinking red and green lights, often a faint engine sound, following flight paths near airports.
Stays put relative to the other stars and drifts only with the slow turning of the whole sky.
When can I see satellites tonight?
- Go out in the first two hours after sunset or the last two before sunrise, when your sky is dark and satellites overhead are still in sunlight.
- Give your eyes 15 minutes to adjust, find a wide open view, and look up rather than at the horizon, where the haze is thickest.
- The International Space Station is the brightest and easiest. The panel above gives its next naked-eye pass for your area, and the ISS spotting guide explains what you will see.
- A neat row of lights is a Starlink train, best caught in the days after a launch. The Starlink guide shows when the newest one passes over you.
How the live overhead map works
- It takes your approximate location (or your exact one, if you allow it) and computes which satellites are above your local horizon this minute.
- Live-tracked satellites use their current orbital elements from the public CelesTrak catalog, refreshed every day, so their positions line up with what real trackers see. Pass times use SGP4, the standard model behind satellite tracking.
- The sky chart is drawn looking up: the point straight above you in the center, north at the top, and east on the left, so you can hold it up and match a real light to the map.
- In the 3D atlas, the Sky view turns a phone into a window on the sky: point it up and the satellites show against the real stars.
Frequently asked questions
- How many satellites are above me right now?
- Roughly 1,050 tracked satellites are above your horizon at any moment, wherever you are on Earth: between about 910 and 1,170 depending on your latitude. Only a few dozen to a couple of hundred of them are high overhead, and most are too faint to see without a telescope. The live panel on this page counts the ones above you this minute. Open the live overhead map
- What satellite is above me right now?
- The live panel at the top of this page lists the satellites highest in your sky right now, by name, with how high they are and in which direction. Often it is a Starlink satellite, a navigation satellite such as GPS, Galileo or BeiDou, or a weather satellite. The 3D atlas lets you click any dot to identify it. Identify satellites on the 3D map
- How can I tell if a light in the sky is a satellite or a plane?
- A satellite is a single steady point of light that glides smoothly across the sky in a straight line, with no flashing and no sound. A plane has blinking red and green navigation lights and usually a low hum. If the light is steady, silent and takes a few minutes to cross from one horizon toward another, it is almost certainly a satellite catching the sunlight.
- Is that moving star a satellite?
- Stars stay fixed relative to each other and rise and set slowly with the whole sky. A point of light that drifts steadily across the star field in a minute or two is a satellite reflecting the Sun, not a star. The brightest ones, like the International Space Station, can outshine every real star in the sky.
- When can I see satellites tonight?
- The couple of hours after dusk and before dawn are best. During that twilight window the sky above you is dark but satellites high overhead are still lit by the Sun, so they shine against a black background. In the middle of the night many satellites pass through Earth's shadow and go dark.
- How many satellites are in the sky in total?
- About 22,300 tracked objects are in orbit around Earth today, counting satellites, working or retired, and the rocket stages that carried them, and the number grows every week as new constellations launch. At any moment only a small share of them is above your own horizon. See all of them in 3D
- Why do satellites suddenly disappear?
- A satellite shines only because it reflects sunlight. When it flies into Earth's shadow the sunlight is cut off and it fades out within a few seconds, even though it is still there and still moving. This is normal and is one more way to tell a satellite from an aircraft.