UpToWhere
UpToWhere Can you see it?

Can you see Southeast Farallon Island from Lands End, San Francisco?

Yes, you can

44.1 km line of sight toward the west-southwest (bearing 258°), computed on 30 m Copernicus terrain with Earth curvature and standard atmospheric refraction.

The answer

Yes. Southeast Farallon Island is visible from Lands End, San Francisco across 44.1 km, looking down: Earth's curvature drops the target 133 m, leaving its top 93 m below eye level and still clear of the ground in between.

Most San Franciscans have never noticed them, yet on the clearest days a jagged little archipelago appears off the Golden Gate: the Farallones, 40 km out in the Pacific, hiding in plain sight.

3D terrain view from Lands End, San Francisco toward Southeast Farallon Island
Straight-line distance44.1 km
Direction258° west-southwest
Observer eye level47 m
Target elevation86 m
Curvature drop at the target133 m
Below your eye level93 m

From Lands End, San Francisco, at an eye level of 47 m, the sightline to Southeast Farallon Island runs 44.1 km and clears every ridge in between. Over that distance Earth's curvature drops the target 133 m below a flat-earth line, but at 86 m, it still rises above the horizon. The view is geometrically real: whether you actually get it depends on haze, not terrain. The tightest squeeze is mid-path, where the sightline passes just 31 m above the terrain at km 17.7.

The line on the map

Satellite map with the sightline from Lands End, San Francisco to Southeast Farallon Island drawn in red
The 44.1 km sightline over satellite imagery, drawn as the great-circle path light would follow.

The terrain profile

0 m500 m sightlineLands EndSoutheast Farallon Isla… 0 km44.1 km10203040
Elevation profile from Lands End, San Francisco to Southeast Farallon Island. Like every elevation profile, the vertical axis is stretched (≈15× here), but the geometry is real: mid-path, Earth's surface genuinely stands 38 m above the straight line between the two points (the dashed arc is sea level). Light bends only slightly around that bulge, so whatever it covers stays hidden.
Check your own two points with the calculator →

Frequently asked questions

Can you see Southeast Farallon Island from Lands End, San Francisco?

Yes. The terrain-limited line of sight is clear across 44.1 km, accounting for Earth's curvature and standard atmospheric refraction. Atmospheric haze is the only thing that can hide the view.

How far is Southeast Farallon Island from Lands End, San Francisco in a straight line?

44.1 km great-circle distance, on a bearing of 258° (west-southwest).

How much does Earth's curvature hide over 44.1 km?

At the target's distance the curvature drop is about 133 m: anything lower than that (relative to the observer's horizon plane) is hidden behind the bulge of the Earth. Southeast Farallon Island is tall enough to rise above it.

How was this calculated?

UpToWhere walks the full terrain profile between the two points on 30 m-resolution Copernicus GLO-30 elevation data, applying Earth curvature and standard atmospheric refraction (k = 0.13), the same physics surveyors use. You can run the same point-to-point check between any two places on Earth.

More famous sightlines

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