Comparisons and Similar Software

• OrbTrack
• Rouge Space
• In-The-Sky.org
• The Sky Live
• KeepTrack
• Heavens-Above
• N2YO.com
• Stellarium
  • Also uses device orientation to show a view of the sky.
  • Focused on astronomy, but can show satellites.
• AstroHopper
  • Also uses device orientation to show a view of the sky.
  • Uses known stars to calibrate the device orientation.
  • Does not show satellites.
• Heavensat Web
  • First person view
  • Does not use device orientation.
• Sat Finder
  • First person view.
  • Uses device orientation and a camera passthrough for augmented reality.
  • Only shows one satellite at a time.

To Do

• Orbit prediction

  • Draw lines
  • List upcoming passes

• Offline support (PWA)

• Radio information

  • Download from SatNOGS
  • Search satellites
    • Radio mode
    • Frequency
  • Show frequency and doppler shift

• Upgrade to the latest version of satellite.js and use OMM instead of TLE.

• Move control panel to the right side.

• Stop labels from scrolling when the control panel scrolls.

• Zoom in/out.

• Make this an installable PWA with offline support.

  • Offline support for viewing satellites using locally saved data.

• Show status of geolocation.

• Show status of device orientation.

• Try to make device orientation work in iOS.

• Search for satellites.

  • by name
  • by NORAD ID
  • by frequency
  • by radio mode

• Select/filter satellites display.

• Select a small number of satellites to "focus".

  • Focused satellites have
    • a label,
    • a path trace,
    • and a direction pointer when not in view.

• Select a satellite from the sky view.

• Drag to pan.

• Scroll or pinch to zoom.

• Show satellite details.

• Show satellite path.

• Show satellite passes.

• Auto update satellite TLEs.

• Cache satellite TLEs on client to improve performance.

• Cache satellite TLEs on server to reduce load on CelesTrak.

• Manual TLE input.

• Get transponder frequencies.

• Show doppler shift.

• Link to other satellite tracking sites.

• Improve performance.

  • Use a web worker for computing satellite positions.
  • Instead of computing every frame, compute key frames and interpolate between them. Not needed.

• Data UI

  • Show errors
  • Last fetched
  • Option to update now

Search UI

• The search UI overlays on the sky view.
• Satellites that do not match the current search are greyed out in the sky view.
• A search can be used to filter which satellites are displayed in the sky view.
• The active search is not cleared when closing/minimizing the search UI.
• Searches can be saved.
• Searches can be assigned a color. Satellites matching a search will be highlighted in the sky view with the search's color.
• Remember recently used searches.
• Selecting a satellite from the search results list focusses it in the sky view.

Special Thanks

Thank you Saveitforparts and dereksgc for inspiring me to get back into amateur radio and satellite tracking.

Thank you CelesTrak for providing TLE data and documentation.