james.darpinian.com
Productivity
satellite viewing
SHOW HN2019
863points
151comments
#6of 2,195 in 2019
Top 1%of 2019 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
47 positive, 35 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 15 critical, out of 99 comments about the project. Thread score +0.37.
Design: 17 for, 1 againstExecution: 6 for, 7 againstIdea: 12 for, 1 againstPerformance: 3 for, 2 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 3 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
Street View integration showing where to look is excellent
From 5 comments
At first I was going to wonder what the benefit of this above something like www.heavens-above.com is, and then I went all the way through. The real benefit is, I think, the use…
trothamel on HNI’ll second that the street view was super impressive
LyalinDotCom on HNThe street-view feature is very impressive, and very useful, especially when combined with the schedule. Thank you for building this.
anonytrary on HNThis is so cool! Using streetview really matters for some reason, it made it totally obvious where the thing was going to appear. Great job.
matt2000 on HNThat street view simulation is.... epic. Some of the sweetest dev I've seen this year.
mmaunder on HN
Helped people actually see the ISS with family
From 4 comments
For whoever built this app: I was checking HN in bed. I clicked your app and noticed the ISS would be passing overhead in less than a minute. My reaction was to immediately jump…
emilioolivares on HNI just saw the ISS! This was posted a few hours ago and told me exactly where and when to look and sure enough, there it was. Thanks!
mabbo on HNThank you for sharing this. My wife and I got to see the ISS fly across the sky, and we knew exactly where and when to look. I really appreciate it!
kotrunga on HNI just saw the ISS with my kids (3 and 6). They were so excited. Thank you!
matt_the_bass on HN
Simple, no sign-up required
From 1 comment
Great execution, a breath of fresh air that you don't ask to 'sign up', 'enter email', etc. and just provide the value right away to be experienced.
infinitone on HN
Objections
Location fallback is inaccurate without GPS or permission
From 2 comments
Cool concept but the implementation is terrible. Just give me a button to input my own location. Not to mention the dot on the globe is about 3,000 miles from the street view it…
BlueGh0st on HNSame here, saw the post, tested it and saw ISS was passing over my house in a few minutes, called my wife to go outside look for it. At first we saw a (possible) satellite, we…
jdright on HN
Does not work in some browsers (Firefox, Safari, iPad)
From 4 comments
Doesn't work for me. All I see in Firefox (on desktop) is a blurry earth animation which you can zoom but which does nothing. There are some errors in the console and that's…
softblush on HNAwesome service! However notifications don't seem to work in Safari. It says "Notifications not allowed" in spite of me having set it to allowed.
TrickyRick on HN:-( Entering my address and hitting GO does nothing... But I love the idea. However it showed me the times and the satellite but I can’t click on the satellite and see what it…
samstave on HNAmazing app. Really sad it doesn't work in Firefox (mobile) though :-(
pergadad on HN
Street View coverage is limited
From 1 comment
Really great! Too bad there isn't Street View available everywhere :(
runxel on HN
Requests
Show satellite details and names
From 2 comments
Kudos! Very nicely done. It would be nice to have an easy way to see more details about the satellite. For example, I see that tonight I can see CZ-2C R/B, though without a…
ramk on HNThis is really cool! Love the street view visualization! I have a request though. To save time searching for the satellite is there anyway you could provide info to what it is as…
Urgo on HN
Manual location entry by latitude and longitude
From 1 comment
That is likely to happen if you decline location permission and the IP geolocation fallback is inaccurate. If you try on your phone it should get an accurate GPS location. Adding…
modeless on HN
Look back at past passes
From 1 comment
Tonight I saw what I thought are three different satellites. Then I went to your website, however I was not able to look back in the past. I modified system time back two hours…
_nalply on HN
Support for airplanes
From 1 comment
Perfect use for tech—bravo! Can you do this with airplanes too? Might be fun to "see" where they're from/going.
mLuby on HN
Questions
Are times shown in local timezone
From 2 comments
Are the hours in my local TimeZone, in GMT or in the timezone of the developer?
Rarok on HNIs the time in local timezone ?
cryptozeus on HN
How is location determined
From 2 comments
It should fall back to IP geolocation, but you really need to know at least a general location to get accurate times.
modeless on HNThe default is the HTML geolocation API, as implemented by your web browser.
modeless on HN
Alternatives named
Heavens-Above
From 1 comment
At first I was going to wonder what the benefit of this above something like www.heavens-above.com is, and then I went all the way through. The real benefit is, I think, the use…
trothamel on HN
N2YO
From 1 comment
Another excellent site for live-tracking of satellites is https://www.n2yo.com which seems to have a pretty exhaustive database of satellites of all kinds. I've used it to track…
amatecha on HN
Sky Guide
From 1 comment
Also check out Sky Guide[0]. It's an iOS app that (among many other awesome things) tracks 250+ satellites - and can send a notification before they pass over your location[1].…
perchard on HN
Stellarium
From 1 comment
You can use Stellarium for that as well: https://stellarium.org
shmerl on HN
ISS Detector
From 1 comment
Awesome, my dad is gonna love this. I've been using the "ISS detector" app. it has a compass that when you line it up with your phone, it points to the object you're trying to…
janpot on HN