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Just going to plug my Starlink tracker here: https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/?special=starlink https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/?special=starlink
by modeless 7y ago
Just going to plug my Starlink tracker here: https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/?special=starlink https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/?special=starlink
It tells you when to go outside and look up to see the satellites as they pass over your house. It's a cool sight to see because there are up to 60 of them crossing the sky at the same time in a line.
- pupppet 7y agoThis is great!
- TheCraiggers 7y agoThat is a beautiful website. Great job.
- ynniv 7y agoCould you add dates and time zones to the events? I want to manually add one to my calendar correctly.
- modeless 7y agoTimes are always displayed in your local time zone according to your OS/web browser settings. Now that you mention it, I should put an "add to calendar" link in there.
- modeless 7y agoI finished the "add to calendar" feature, and also I started converting and displaying time zones (if you choose a location that's outside your local time zone).
- saberdancer 7y agoThank you! I was looking for this today but I didn't bookmark it last time. Bookmarked it this time though!
- saganus 7y agoIt would be nice if I could select the location manually, since I don't like sharing my location directly by a prompt. When I got the location permission request I denied it and then it says there were no sightings available for the next 5 days :(
- modeless 7y agoIf you deny the location permission it uses geoip instead. If the geoip location is incorrect there's a "Change Location" link you can use.
- sedatk 7y agoPerhaps it could be better other way around. Start with GeoIP and add an "Improve Location" option. That way more people would enable it.
- mirimir 7y agoIt'd arguably be best to offer explicit choices to users: * manually entered location * IP address based geoip * location permission The site doesn't work at all for me, even if I give location permission. Because that's disabled in Firefox.
- modeless 7y agoThose choices are all present, and the site works fine with location disabled. I test that.
- mirimir 7y agoOK, I navigate to the site in Firefox 60.3.0esr (64-bit) in Debian, and allow everything in NoScript. Then I see this: > See Starlink > Click to search for viewing times at your location. So I click, and see a popup: > Will you allow james.darpinian.com to access your location? So I click on "Allow Location Access". Then I see "Loading", with a GIF. But nothing ever loads. Checking about:config, I see that NoScript likely added these: > capability.policy.maonoscript.sites modified string [numerous domains] > noscript.untrusted modified string [numerous domains] I get the same result if I don't allow location access. That's all I know offhand. But I'll be happy to check more carefully, if you like.
- reaperducer 7y agoIt tells you when to go outside and look up to see the satellites as they pass over your house This must be made up. I have been assured repeatedly on HN that Starlink is a visual non-factor, and that nobody would notice them in the sky, they won't get in the way of astronomy, stargazing, or just enjoying the night sky like humans have done for thousands of years.
- CKN23-ARIN 7y agoWell, there's an easy way to find out who's right. Look at the website, go outside when it tells you to, and look up. Let us know what you find.
- robotomir 7y agoI saw the first Starlink set a couple of weeks ago, looking up from a city street. It is amazing sight, a line of moving stars, not very bright, stretching horizon to horizon. When all the satellites are in orbit, it will drastically change the night sky, especially in the early evening when they reflect the most light from the Sun.
- Rapzid 7y agoDusk
- true_religion 7y agoBoth statements are true. The satellites are visible if it is dark but it they don’t interfere with enjoyment of the nights sky. They cross over so fast it’s basically like looking at planes, but they are much further away than planes so you have to really look to see them.
- TaylorAlexander 7y agoThe satellites are much more visible when they were just launched, when they are in a “low drag” configuration. It takes some time for them to reach operational altitude, at which point they shift to a “low brightness” configuration. And I don’t think anyone ever (credibly) said they don’t affect astronomy. They do. Fortunately SpaceX is working with the astronomy community to minimize the effect. If I do look up in the nights sky and see many faint little points, it’s still something to marvel at. But I think once at operational altitude they will be difficult to see with the naked eye.
- farzy 7y agoleolabs.space - does something similar for tracking low Earth orbit satellites. The great thing with this tool is that you can modify the velocity and filter the data. https://demo.leolabs.space/visualizations/leo https://demo.leolabs.space/visualizations/leo
- modeless 7y agoWow, that's a cool one that I hadn't seen before, thanks!
- sprash 7y agoOh that's great. Now I can better aim my Elon-Sattelite-fryer device. I already collected 25 old microwave ovens which I plan to operate as phased array to produce a collimated beam of microwaves directed at the satellites to fry their electronics. I might have a better chance If know the exact frequency their receivers are tuned to. Does anybody know more? The reckless littering of our precious LEO must end here!
- zaroth 7y agoThe FCC would like a word. Damn those billionaires and their... global high speed satellite internet access, right?
- Consultant32452 7y agoI work remotely and would love to live in a rural area but I'm largely tethered to suburbia for the internet speeds. I can't express how excited I am at the possibilities coming from satellite internet.
- sprash 7y agoThe FCC has no jurisdiction where I live.
- labster 7y agoThe FTC would like a word. This sounds like you are invoking Kessler Syndrome in LEO to protect the geostationary monopolies. Totally violates antitrust law.
- CrazyStat 7y agoFrying perfectly good satellites so they can't be maneuvered or deorbited sounds like a great way to recklessly litter LEO.
- p1mrx 7y agoThe nice thing about LEO is that everything deorbits automatically.
- synaesthesisx 7y agoWow, this is pretty cool! Looks like a bunch should be visible on Saturday from LA. I’ll definitely be keeping a lookout!
- davefp 7y agoI saw the L2 group go over my house tonight! It was fantastic. All my previous experience has been viewing the ISS, and watching the Starlink satellites go over was a much different experience. Each was only visible for a handful of seconds, but they kept coming one after the other in a perfect line, each equidistant from the next. I didn't stay out to watch them all go by but it was a fantastic experience that I'd recommend to anyone.
- shmerl 7y agoAre they really appearing as such bright objects? Didn't SpaceX decide to make them non reflective?
- prox 7y agoThey are currently testing a non reflective coating on one of the satellites in the latest batch, and are consulting with the astronomical society.
- jcims 7y agoSMS or email alert would be sweet. I wonder if you could just make an ical file available to avoid having to pay any costs for the messaging.
- modeless 7y agoI'm working to implement alerts via calendar events right now actually. I already have alerts based on web push, but frankly the web push notifications API sucks. You only get the notifications on one device, they are delayed by random amounts of time (hours in some cases), the UI for enabling them is spammy and lame, and Safari doesn't support them. Calendar events suck too because there's no standard way to add an event to a system calendar across platforms. Even the same browser on different platforms acts differently.
- King-Aaron 7y agoThat's really cool! Added a reminder.
- kuu 7y agoCongratulations, it is really cool
- thombat 7y agoThat was unexpectedly splendid: my city isn't covered by StreetView, with the sole exception of the interior of the city museum in the old palace. So according to the simulated view tomorrow at 0612 I can look for a string of pearls gliding across the gilded baroque ceiling of my unaccustomedly spacious bedroom.
- jcurbo 7y agoYour site is exceptional, thanks for creating it. I used it a few weeks ago to see a Starlink pass over my area. I like how you added the simulated view in Streetview, I think that will help a lot of people understand what to look for that aren't necessarily astronomy types.
- zepearl 7y agoAbsolutely nice (and simple) - thank you!
- no-s 7y agonow this is a cool site.
- peterburkimsher 7y agoI'd just like to say thank you so much for posting this link! Because of you, I went to a beach bonfire in New Zealand tonight, and had a beautiful view of Starlink at 10:02 pm. I was so excited when I saw it that I disturbed many other conversations, but other people were equally amazed!