Optimal passes

For my home QTH, my best passes are ascending passes directly to the South or South-Southeast.

This gives me the clearest sky, and the best AOS-to-LOS coverage.

Ascending and Descending Nodes in Satellite Orbiting

Many satellites that orbit the Earth are in orbits that are called polar orbits - that means that they go over both of Earth's polar regions, the Arctic and Antarctic. Satellites with this kind of orbit have an ascending node and a descending node of the orbit. The ascending node is when the satellite is traveling south to north over the Earth's surface. The descending node is when the satellite is traveling from north to south over the Earth's surface.