Galactic Compass
Games
space astronomy toy
SHOW HN2024
175points
60comments
#461of 3,515 in 2024
Top 14%of 2024 by points
How HN took it
LovedMost comments that take a side are positive
12 positive, 10 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 2 critical, out of 25 comments about the project. Thread score +0.38.
Idea: 7 for, 0 againstDesign: 1 for, 1 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 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
Original, simple and fun app
From 3 comments
Three thoughts -- First, this is so simple and yet so original. I absolutely love it. It feels like a tiny little piece of Star Trek or of science fiction but that's real and…
crazygringo on HNthis is now the coolest app i have on my phone.
rc_mob on HNI found this oddly calming
itake on HN
Good example of ChatGPT helping non-programmers make apps
From 2 comments
This is pretty cool! Also happy to see you were able to make such an original app using chatgpt! It's a great counter example to some of the weirder arguments I've seen on here…
amarant on HNThis walkthrough, and ChatGPT, is probably going to inspire a lot of people who never made an app before to finally make that big step. If you're one of them, and manage to…
geor9e on HN
Objections
Arrow breaks when phone is held upright, so it must be flat
From 2 comments
When i hold it upwards isFlat becomes false, but when i hold the phone upwards in landscape mode isFlat stays true. Why do i need to keep the phone flat? Doesn't that depend on…
hollander on HNHuh, when I go into your debug tab the heading value always seems to stay accurate no matter if my phone is flat or vertical. It seems to work the same as the Compass app, which…
crazygringo on HN
Requests
Android version
From 3 comments
This walkthrough, and ChatGPT, is probably going to inspire a lot of people who never made an app before to finally make that big step. If you're one of them, and manage to…
geor9e on HNAny timeline on an Android version?
Larrikin on HNThis is pretty cool! Also happy to see you were able to make such an original app using chatgpt! It's a great counter example to some of the weirder arguments I've seen on here…
amarant on HN
Show exact live distance to galactic center
From 1 comment
Three thoughts -- First, this is so simple and yet so original. I absolutely love it. It feels like a tiny little piece of Star Trek or of science fiction but that's real and…
crazygringo on HN
Choose which galaxy to point to
From 1 comment
Love it. One suggestion: it would be nice if one could choose the galaxy. I'm not from here, so ... ("Check your galactic privilege!") ;)
torbengee on HN
Questions
Why does the phone need to be flat?
From 2 comments
When i hold it upwards isFlat becomes false, but when i hold the phone upwards in landscape mode isFlat stays true. Why do i need to keep the phone flat? Doesn't that depend on…
hollander on HNPure speculation: Because the iPhone only has an Earth compass, the app has to calculate which direction to point based on the position of the Earth (relative to the Milky Way),…
LoganDark on HN
How accurate is the iPhone positioning?
From 1 comment
WOW,… to the experts in the room, how accurate, trustworthy is the positioning system on the iPhone, and are there some models which are better/worse?
lencastre on HN
Alternatives named
Google Sky Map on Android
From 1 comment
It's not quite the same thing, but on Android you can use Sky Map [1] and search for "M6". (The actual center is just off from the star in Sagittarius that is closest to M6 (γ2…
kej on HN
Stellarium
From 1 comment
This walkthrough, and ChatGPT, is probably going to inspire a lot of people who never made an app before to finally make that big step. If you're one of them, and manage to…
geor9e on HN
Star Walk
From 1 comment
I built up the intuition 10 years before the 2021 post -- it's a while back so my memory is fuzzy. But once you've got the ecliptic, you're most of the way there: you can…
genmon on HN