Even when I dont like Musk he did what Google tried for years
He's a good example of how an awful person with awful opinions can still somehow do cool stuff.
Really, he's just surrounding himself with great people, clearly.
Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit
171–180 of 248 posts
Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit
#172This is really cool but what's with the borderline propaganda in the sidebar interlaced with the data?
Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit
#173What happens when there are half a dozen startups with 42,000 satellites around earth?
Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit
#174I made a version of whatsoverhead.com but for satellites: You could ask it, "Hey, Siri, what's overhead…in space?" and it would tell you what the nearest satellite to you was. It was an attempt to help situate yourself in the invisible world of spacecraft flying overhead all the time. The thing is, 70-90% of the time the answer is "STARLINK-1234". It was shocking to me. The app achieved the goal I intended, and the a…
Wow, that's really cool, could you share it? I would use that all the time.
Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit
#175I've been confused why our Starlink coverage is so good in rural Manitoba, Canada. On HN and elsewhere I heard complaining from Americans about how the service is over-subscribed and over-saturated, but everyone I talk to here raves about the service. I assumed we simply had less subscribers. This visualization has revealed another reason to me: the satellites hit the northern extent of their orbit and dwell over our…
I don't quite understand your second reason. Could you elaborate what you mean by "dwell over our province" which would explain improved coverage beyond the fact that there are as you said probably fewer subscribers the satellites are visible from?
Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit
#176This is really cool but what's with the borderline propaganda in the sidebar interlaced with the data?
Agreed. Internet to the whole world is a noble goal, but the internet provider in chief is, in my estimation, a ghoul. The gushing praise is a strange choice to be sure, considering how informative the rest of the site is.
Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit
#177I've been confused why our Starlink coverage is so good in rural Manitoba, Canada. On HN and elsewhere I heard complaining from Americans about how the service is over-subscribed and over-saturated, but everyone I talk to here raves about the service. I assumed we simply had less subscribers. This visualization has revealed another reason to me: the satellites hit the northern extent of their orbit and dwell over our…
I don't quite understand your second reason. Could you elaborate what you mean by "dwell over our province" which would explain improved coverage beyond the fact that there are as you said probably fewer subscribers the satellites are visible from?
I think you misinterpreted. Parent poster probably was thinking "fewer subscribers per Earth sq km", but mostly it turns out to be "more satellites per sq km".
Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit
#178Striking visualization, makes me wonder: can this density of satellite coverage meaningfully change how earth appears to an alien civilization many lightyears away, in a way that coverage by 1% or 10% as many satellites over the last ~50 years would not?
I know the dots seem large in the visualization, but these satellites are approximately the size of cars. They're specks of dust at this scale.
Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit
#179Maps like these are really useful for folks developing satcom firmware. I use https://iridiumwhere.com at least a couple times a week to help me test code. This one is particularly interesting for the sheer density of it - that's a TON of satellites. On a related note, anyone who hasn't done so should get to their country's lowest light-pollution area and do some star gazing (for Americans, I suggest Badlands Nationa…
I live in a dark skies area in the Southwest USA. I frequently see the trains as they are inserted into orbit, but your chance of seeing an individual Starlink satellite is zero. It's like trying to see a single object the size of a picnic table, in the dark, 400km away, going 27,000km/hr.
Seeing high-albedo LEO satellites in orbit is easy with under a dark sky. I remember seeing individual satellites all the time while camping as a child, I'd see at least 2 per minute, all traveling in the same direction. This was before constellations became a thing.
Re: Real-time map of every Starlink satellite in orbit
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in a dark skies area in the Southwest USA. I frequently see the trains as they are inserted into orbit, but your chance of seeing an individual Starlink satellite is zero. It's like trying to see a single object the size of a picnic table, in the dark, 400km away, going 27,000km/hr.
This is totally incorrect, what do you think you are seeing in the trains? You can easily see each individual satellite. Just after sunset you can see many individual satellites, not just starlink.
Starlink reduces reflectivity with shielding once the satellites are in orbit. That’s why you only see the trails on their way to insertion.
Without the shield, you’re right that the satellites would be visible post insertion.