ISS tracker (iss.matteason.co.uk)
Learning and science
space tracking visualisation
SHOW HN2024
ISS tracker (iss.matteason.co.uk)
Beautiful 3D ISS tracker with live video and near-realtime clouds
iss.matteason.co.uk#iss tracker#live iss video#3d globe#satellite tracker#near realtime clouds
How HN took it
11 positive, 11 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 8 critical, out of 31 comments about the project. Thread score +0.15.
Design: 6 for, 1 againstPerformance: 0 for, 7 againstIdea: 2 for, 0 againstExecution: 1 for, 0 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Beautiful, impressive visuals
From 4 comments
Very good looking. It'd be amazing if it has some kind of "time travelling" option or an easy way to know the next time the ISS will pass over a certain location.
alberduris on HNWow. This is really beautiful? Can the code be customized to other spacecraft? I made a tracker for starlink satellites but think your visualization is much nicer.…
jsemrau on HNBeautiful. Is the pixel ratio being set with: setPixelRatio(window.devicePixelRatio); ? This would make this look razor sharp on HiDPI devices.
remlov on HNThis is fantastic. Very nice work. Are you using CesiumJS? Minor gripe: Please don't disable right click :(
mthoms on HN
Objections
Fails or crashes on iPhone Safari due to memory
From 5 comments
For some reason this causes "A problem repeatedly occurred" on my iPhone 15. Reminding myself to try when I get home.
zamadatix on HNSame here
pakr on HNI did have one but turning it off didn't change the behavior. It's not that the globe doesn't load it's that it starts loading for a split second (can actually see the globe),…
zamadatix on HNSafari runs out of memory with web maps. Reported it several times but no fix from Apple. Most powerful iPhone crashes but 5 year old Samsung with 2GB ram works fine…
sccxy on HNI'd love to try but it fails to load and crash the browser tab (an error repeatedly occured). Safari on iPhone.
can16358p on HN
Slow initial load; globe takes long to appear
From 1 comment
This is neat, loading time was very slow for me, though. The Earth didn't appear for 30+ seconds, so most of the page was just a black background.
pimlottc on HN
Video and position out of sync
From 2 comments
Wow. The video and map position appears to be a bit out of sync. Was watching flyby over USA and when the map position exited land and went over ocean, it took about a minute for…
urza on HNYeah there's definitely some latency in the video. I thought about adding an option to compensate for it (ie delay the position shown by some amount of seconds) but the delay is…
matteason on HN
Requests
Time rewind and next-pass prediction
From 2 comments
Very good looking. It'd be amazing if it has some kind of "time travelling" option or an easy way to know the next time the ISS will pass over a certain location.
alberduris on HNAh, nice. A quick thought: Perhaps have an option of seeing a projected track, perhaps with time ticks, for "oh, it's going to overfly mumble in mumble time - I should stay/try…
mncharity on HN
Use a real ISS model instead of a dot
From 1 comment
There are some crazy lightning storms over China in the live video feed at the moment. Very cool. One thing I would change is to change the yellow dot to an actual image of the…
spuz on HN
Visibility circle showing where ISS can be seen
From 1 comment
I love it! My feature request is an option for a circle on the ground showing where the ISS is visible from at the moment.
badcppdev on HN
Questions
Can the code be customised for other spacecraft?
From 1 comment
Wow. This is really beautiful? Can the code be customized to other spacecraft? I made a tracker for starlink satellites but think your visualization is much nicer.…
jsemrau on HN
Alternatives named
Privateer Wayfinder
From 1 comment
Not sure if you’ve heard of Privateer, which generates a viz. of all satellites functional or otherwise. It’s in a similar vein. https://wayfinder.privateer.com/
Simorgh on HN
Heavens-Above ISS 3D visualizer
From 1 comment
Hey there-- thank you for putting this together! I am an educator who has done a bunch of stuff with space; we hosted a contact between our students and an astronaut on the…
mlyle on HN
CesiumJS
From 1 comment
This is fantastic. Very nice work. Are you using CesiumJS? Minor gripe: Please don't disable right click :(
mthoms on HN