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My site https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/ https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/ uses WebGL, Web Workers, WASM, Service Workers, Notifications API, Geolo

My site https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/ https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/ uses WebGL, Web Workers, WASM, Service Workers, Notifications API, Geolocation API, probably some other web platform features I'm forgetting. The use of workers and WASM is not obvious, but on page load it takes the current orbit parameters for every orbiting satellite that is potentially visible anywhere on Earth and calculates the future position of each satellite every few minutes for the next 5 days, and then checks each future position for visibility from your location (accounting for sun angle, earth occlusion, sky brightness etc), all client side before page load finishes. WASM allows me to use the canonical satellite propagation tools (SGP4, written in ancient C translated from Fortran) and workers let me use multiple cores and not block the UI too much.

parabyl 4y ago
I had a mild jaw-drop moment when it showed my house on a starry night with the satellite passing overhead! Very cool website
mywacaday 4y ago
Amazing, minor nitpick it shows the ISS as visible over Ireland at approx 9pm tonight, pretty bright in Ireland at that time at this time of year, will check and report back if it was visible. Great work, you have amazing talent!
- modeless 4y ago
  Thanks! ISS is very bright; bright enough that it is sometimes even visible before sunset if you know exactly where to look! It's fun to try to spot it in a bright sky although it can be difficult. Let me know if you find it!
  - mywacaday 4y ago
    Cloudy night, will try again soon.
    - mywacaday 4y ago
      Got a great view of the ISS last night just after sunset, thanks!
      - modeless 4y ago
        Cool! Glad it worked for you!
frading 4y ago
This is spendid. I've used other tools to spot the ISS previously, but this one makes it so intuitive. Great job.
singularity2001 4y ago
Too bad it doesnt work with Facebook blocked
- your_challenger 4y ago
  It works for me (with FB blocked). I use privacy badger[1] and tried reloading the website after blocking facebook and twitter (by default it blocked cookies) [1]: https://privacybadger.org/ https://privacybadger.org/
Terry_Roll 4y ago
Sorry Your browser does not support Web Assembly. Please upgrade your web browser. I recommend downloading Chrome. Its the latest MS Edge, but a handy trick you might be interested in is to use detectable bugs to fingerprint a webbrowser. So Internet Explorer 6 might have a browser detectable javascript bug that 8 didnt have, or a bug might exist in IE but not firefox and if someone changed their browser agent ie firefox pretending to be IE, it was still possible to workout what the browser was and deliver code accordingly. :) Of course some web browsers could be like looking at A Scanner Darkly character!
- brailsafe 4y ago
  Do you have WASM enabled? A cursory search indicates it's not on by default
  - Terry_Roll 4y ago
    I know its off, I have lots of things switched off, my point was the message wasnt that useful and one way you could improve the message to guide potential visitors to help them switch it on, if they wanted to, was to use the bug detection to really test if the browser is what it say is before giving the guidance to switch on stuff in a browser. Over engineered perhaps, but still valid.
    - brailsafe 4y ago
      I suppose technically it's imprecise, but erring towards cautionary rather than suggesting they switch stuff on. Someone comfortable with switching stuff on might go looking for it if they know what's up. I used to do more precise messages like you're suggesting, but such a make or break feature I'd probably just be vague about it. MS edge incidentally is fine. It does what it does.
anyfactor 4y ago
Wow this is incredible. Can you add geostationary satellites too?
- JshWright 4y ago
  That seems out of scope for a site dedicated to visible satellite passes. Geostationary satellites are way too far away to be visible, and don't move relative to the observer.
djlewald 4y ago
when I grow up, I want to be a dev like you lol
a_square_peg 4y ago
Holy cow, this is amazing. Absolutely fantastic!
amelius 4y ago
It seems there is a bug. I see ISS passing by, then I rotate the view a bit, and suddenly ISS passes again, all within a few seconds.
- MisterSandman 4y ago
  That isn't a bug, the ISS isn't passing by at that moment, the time it will pass over you is at the top. The looped video is showing you how the ISS will pass over you. It isn't a live feed.
sanketpatrikar 4y ago
Not sure why it's happening, but ISS passes overhead for me multiple times every few seconds. I'm in India. Firefox 100.
- modeless 4y ago
  I'm not quite clear on what the issue is. By design the site shows the next satellite to pass over, and it loops every 20 seconds like a looping video as suggested by the seek bar and play/pause button at the bottom. Are you saying that it is looping faster than once every 20 seconds?
alucardo 4y ago
Fantastic, 3 minutes after clicking on your website, i was watching the ISS passing by at my window.
AndyJado 4y ago
how about google earth
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

parabyl 4y ago

I had a mild jaw-drop moment when it showed my house on a starry night with the satellite passing overhead! Very cool website

mywacaday 4y ago

Amazing, minor nitpick it shows the ISS as visible over Ireland at approx 9pm tonight, pretty bright in Ireland at that time at this time of year, will check and report back if it was visible. Great work, you have amazing talent!

modeless 4y ago
Thanks! ISS is very bright; bright enough that it is sometimes even visible before sunset if you know exactly where to look! It's fun to try to spot it in a bright sky although it can be difficult. Let me know if you find it!
- mywacaday 4y ago
  Cloudy night, will try again soon.
  - mywacaday 4y ago
    Got a great view of the ISS last night just after sunset, thanks!
    - modeless 4y ago
      Cool! Glad it worked for you!

frading 4y ago

This is spendid. I've used other tools to spot the ISS previously, but this one makes it so intuitive. Great job.

singularity2001 4y ago

Too bad it doesnt work with Facebook blocked

your_challenger 4y ago
It works for me (with FB blocked). I use privacy badger[1] and tried reloading the website after blocking facebook and twitter (by default it blocked cookies) [1]: https://privacybadger.org/ https://privacybadger.org/

Terry_Roll 4y ago

Sorry Your browser does not support Web Assembly. Please upgrade your web browser. I recommend downloading Chrome. Its the latest MS Edge, but a handy trick you might be interested in is to use detectable bugs to fingerprint a webbrowser. So Internet Explorer 6 might have a browser detectable javascript bug that 8 didnt have, or a bug might exist in IE but not firefox and if someone changed their browser agent ie firefox pretending to be IE, it was still possible to workout what the browser was and deliver code accordingly. :) Of course some web browsers could be like looking at A Scanner Darkly character!

brailsafe 4y ago
Do you have WASM enabled? A cursory search indicates it's not on by default
- Terry_Roll 4y ago
  I know its off, I have lots of things switched off, my point was the message wasnt that useful and one way you could improve the message to guide potential visitors to help them switch it on, if they wanted to, was to use the bug detection to really test if the browser is what it say is before giving the guidance to switch on stuff in a browser. Over engineered perhaps, but still valid.
  - brailsafe 4y ago
    I suppose technically it's imprecise, but erring towards cautionary rather than suggesting they switch stuff on. Someone comfortable with switching stuff on might go looking for it if they know what's up. I used to do more precise messages like you're suggesting, but such a make or break feature I'd probably just be vague about it. MS edge incidentally is fine. It does what it does.

anyfactor 4y ago

Wow this is incredible. Can you add geostationary satellites too?

JshWright 4y ago
That seems out of scope for a site dedicated to visible satellite passes. Geostationary satellites are way too far away to be visible, and don't move relative to the observer.

djlewald 4y ago

when I grow up, I want to be a dev like you lol

a_square_peg 4y ago

Holy cow, this is amazing. Absolutely fantastic!

amelius 4y ago

It seems there is a bug. I see ISS passing by, then I rotate the view a bit, and suddenly ISS passes again, all within a few seconds.

MisterSandman 4y ago
That isn't a bug, the ISS isn't passing by at that moment, the time it will pass over you is at the top. The looped video is showing you how the ISS will pass over you. It isn't a live feed.

sanketpatrikar 4y ago

Not sure why it's happening, but ISS passes overhead for me multiple times every few seconds. I'm in India. Firefox 100.

modeless 4y ago
I'm not quite clear on what the issue is. By design the site shows the next satellite to pass over, and it loops every 20 seconds like a looping video as suggested by the seek bar and play/pause button at the bottom. Are you saying that it is looping faster than once every 20 seconds?

alucardo 4y ago

Fantastic, 3 minutes after clicking on your website, i was watching the ISS passing by at my window.

AndyJado 4y ago

how about google earth

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]