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Show HN: Orbit – AR satellite tracker, watch 15k+ objects (nagylukas.github.io)

3 points by lukas9 ↗ HN
Hey HN! I made Orbit, an iOS app that allows you to see the satellites, planets, and constellations above you in AR, on a 2D map, and on a 3D globe. The app includes more than 15,000 objects tracked by CelesTrack, together with their pass predictions, descriptions, and detailed orbital data. A searchable catalog of all objects is also available, as well as a built-in chatbot designed to answer any space-related questions you might have.

This is my first published iOS app, so any feedback is greatly appreciated! App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6772174570

21 comments

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ohadkr
The no-account and on-device location approach feels exactly right for this kind of app; how often is the orbital data refreshed?
lukas9
The data is refreshed every 2 hours. I have a GitHub action set up to download the data and push it to my Cloudflare Worker.
adrienfr31
How do you calculate the next passes over a given position?
root-parent
They dont ...Vibe coded...
kordlessagain
Human slop comment.

If the app does what it advertises, there is ZERO reason to care about how it was created. We aren't talking about a one shot prompt here. I'm sure they spent a lot of time working on it, regardless of how the code got generated.

I figure most people that comment this way actually have difficulty getting a coding agent actually on track and building something useful. Just because you lack that skill, doesn't mean others don't have it.

Regardless, a low effort comment by a human is worth a lot less than a comment from an AI with some thought behind it from a human.

I build from a lot of reference code I wrote myself. I've been coding for 30 years, so I have a LOT of code. The improvements to this code by the agents is staggering. That's my experience. Doesn't have to be yours.

lukas9
The other guy is not wrong... kinda. I used AI for the code because I have no experience with Swift and SwiftUI, but I do understand how the calculations work, because I designed them. CelesTrack gives me TLE data, precisely describing each satellite's orbit and movement, as well as its current position on the orbit. What my app does is simply simulate the satellite's position (in 30-second intervals) up until 2 or 7 days into the future, and checks whether the satellite is overhead on each interval. Satellites are considered overhead based on just one criterion, and that is that they are above your horizon (so an elevation > 0 degrees). Hope that answers your question.
idiotsecant
There is a huge ecosystem of software not written because someone doesn't know a library or a particular software tech or maybe even a language, but they have an idea for something useful. I would venture to say that in the very near future a huge quantity of useful software will be 'good enough' boilerplate code with the human providing the central purpose.

Comments like great grandparent post will be somewhat like tailors tearing their hair out over everyone using factory manufactured clothing.

It might not be the same quality, it might not be a beautiful bespoke perfect structure, but it's good enough and it does the job.

Well done, op.

oivaksef
where do you get satellite orbits from?
lukas9
All the data comes from CelesTrack
bagels
Awesome. This is a side project I never got around to making myself. For all the questions of "How do you know where the satellites are", there are published TLEs (old punchcard format) that describe orbital parameters, and you can use those to estimate the position within ~10km (good enough for this).

https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/

Aachen
How does it differ from the existing apps that do this?
lukas9
The reason why I even made this app is that all the similar apps I tried didn't have enough data about the satellites, or just didn't present them in a clean and interesting way. So what I tried to do with my app is to give users multiple options of displaying the satellite positions (AR, 2D, 3D) and have as much data as I could gather for each satellite.
mattlondon
Appears to be iPhone only? Title needs updating
nefarious_ends
The App Store says this app is 4+ years old. Sad that I can’t try the 3D view without paying but I think it’s interesting the Pro plan includes “20x the AI chat”. Oh my iPhone is VERY hot now, I better uninstall this app… good luck!
lukas9
Did you possibly misread the App Store page? The app's age rating is 4+, not its age. I published it on the App Store less than a month ago. Also, is there a specific functionality you were using when your device started overheating, and have you tried changing the performance settings in the app?
lumrn
Very nice project! I have played around with it for a while and noticed that the top right satellite/debris selector doesn't seem to be working correctly as the "Satellites Only" and the "Debris Only" options don't seem to change anything on the ground track view.

I'm wondering if you have any information on Celestrak data licenses and usage terms? Their data comes from Space-Track (plus some directly from operators) which isn't very permissive with its usage and I never found anything more specific on Celestrak's website.

Reminds me of a space version of Flighty, best of luck with it!

lukas9
Hey, thanks for trying it out and noting the bug, I'll look into it! As for the CelesTrack terms and usage, I also couldn't find much info on their website, but I only need one request every two hours so usage limits have never been an issue. For the license, I would assume that the SpaceTrack one would apply since CelesTrack doesn't list one.
LastTrain
Cool. It would be a neat feature if it had a mirror mode, showed you what your screen is pointing at instead of the front of your phone.
somebudyelse
Any hope of open sourcing or android?
lynnharry
Star Walk 2 is a good choice on android.