Inspired by the NASA ISS Tracker: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/tracking_map.cfm
Python pygame based ISS tracker which shows a list of given places and shows which one is currently the closest to the ISS. Originally built in my time at Oracle as a novel way to highlight Oracle OCI cloud data centres around the world, but now displays the world's capital cities, but you can easily add any list you like to places.py.
It uses satellite data from NORAD and the skyfield python library to compute the satellite's position and launches a separate window using pygame.
Each ISS orbit is roughly 90 minutes, but you can control the speed to go into the future or the past.
Two main scripts:
- iss_tracker.py - a simple text or curses version showing ISS data and closest place
- iss_tracker_pygame - a graphical version showing all the locations from a supplied list and the orbit of the ISS
The pygame app responds to the following keys:
+/- Speed up/slow down the ISS, dropping below 1x speed reverses the ISS!
1 Reset ISS speed to real time
P Pause (freeze movement)
R Reset to current (actual) ISS position
N Display Night/Day terminator
Esc/Q Quit
Uses fonts Courier New & Calibri. You may need to install them on your system