horizon
Creative
sky rendering web service
SHOW HN2025
788points
160comments
#29of 3,837 in 2025
Top 1%of 2025 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
37 positive, 31 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 11 critical, out of 81 comments about the project. Thread score +0.33.
Idea: 13 for, 3 againstExecution: 10 for, 3 againstDesign: 4 for, 1 againstPerformance: 1 for, 4 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
Matches the real sky closely for many users.
From 3 comments
Put my phone against the window and I had to call over my wife to come to check it: it matches 100% (clear sky right now). It's amazing, congratulations
101008 on HNi put my laptop next to the window and it was spot on wtf what got me the most is opening chrome dev tools and seeing nothing there
nisten on HNOk this is incredible, it was exactly right, I did a double take!
jama211 on HN
Impressive that it works with no JavaScript.
From 2 comments
Is this all done server side? I was shocked to inspect the page to discover zero js or even a stylesheet. Not so much as a single div. Very impressive.
dehugger on HNi put my laptop next to the window and it was spot on wtf what got me the most is opening chrome dev tools and seeing nothing there
nisten on HN
Fun idea for wallpapers and fake skylights.
From 3 comments
Ooh, how about this as a live desktop wallpaper!
cgijoe on HNFeels like this would be great for fake skylights…
verelo on HNThis would be an awesome background for a smart home dash!
xattt on HN
Objections
Ignores clouds, weather and smoke.
From 4 comments
Would be cool if it considered current weather conditions. The sky is presently much grayer than what the site showed me.
ryukoposting on HNThis project looks amazing and fun. However, the website did not seem to take the cloudy weather at my current location into account, which is a bit of a disappointment.
meatjuice on HNI'm around so much wildfire smoke lately that my sky expectations have changed... I wonder what it would take to account for weather?
ianbicking on HNTried this out now- it's totally gray outside as far as the eye can see, but the sky.dlazaro.ca shows it as clear blue. I wonder where the disconnect / divergence is originating…
bigwheels on HN
Night view is just black.
From 2 comments
Very cool, though I opened it at night so it's just black. Is there a way to adjust the time it renders to see what it would look like at different times?
yonatan8070 on HNI refreshed the page, enabled js, refreshed again and again and finally I gave up thinking it is not loading because it was hugged to death. While reading the comments here it…
jaharios on HN
Some users see mismatched colours at their location.
From 3 comments
21pm in The Netherlands, the sky is a clear blue down to a baby pink right now, however the app shows a black to dark red. Other people are saying it matches exactly for their…
tinco on HNMy sky is blue and orange right now though and your site shows black.
2OEH8eoCRo0 on HNTried this out now- it's totally gray outside as far as the eye can see, but the sky.dlazaro.ca shows it as clear blue. I wonder where the disconnect / divergence is originating…
bigwheels on HN
Requests
Account for weather conditions.
From 3 comments
Would be cool if it considered current weather conditions. The sky is presently much grayer than what the site showed me.
ryukoposting on HNI'm around so much wildfire smoke lately that my sky expectations have changed... I wonder what it would take to account for weather?
ianbicking on HNThis project looks amazing and fun. However, the website did not seem to take the cloudy weather at my current location into account, which is a bit of a disappointment.
meatjuice on HN
Allow setting location manually.
From 1 comment
Neat tool, would love to be able to set the location when the registered IP location isn’t accurate.
j45 on HN
Add stars at night.
From 1 comment
Maybe someone smarter than me could add stars to the night sky, so it's not just black.
dnlzro on HN
Desktop wallpaper support.
From 2 comments
would love this to be a desktop background -- linux or macOS
mushufasa on HNOoh, how about this as a live desktop wallpaper!
cgijoe on HN
Questions
How is the location obtained on Cloudflare?
From 1 comment
As an old-timer who's not up on all the latest whiz-bang web stuff, I have to ask what is the astro/cloudflare/wrangler magic that allows the following to work: ``` const {…
cloudfudge on HN
Can the time be adjusted?
From 1 comment
Very cool, though I opened it at night so it's just black. Is there a way to adjust the time it renders to see what it would look like at different times?
yonatan8070 on HN
Alternatives named
Suncalc library used for sun position.
From 1 comment
Author of Suncalc here — this is exactly the kind of stuff I love to see my code being used in, thanks for sharing!
mourner on HN
Precomputed atmospheric scattering research (Bruneton).
From 1 comment
More sophisticated than I expected. It relies on a research paper: https://github.com/ebruneton/precomputed_atmospheric_scattering
esafak on HN