Contact information | |
To report a problem with this website, to ask a related question, or provide feedback, please send email to: | |
What is the main feature point of this website? | |
This web application lists when certain artificial satellites such as the International Space Station, the Chinese Space Station, and the Hubble Space Telescope will be visible to the naked eye from a specified observer's location. | |
How do I get started? | |
You will need to create an observer location to get started. This is typically your own physical location, entered as GPS coordinates. Navigate to the 'Locations' page, click 'New Location' button, and complete the form by providing the following information:
Then click the 'Save' button. Then click the 'List Sightings' button. | |
Are all of the satellites listed visible to the naked eye? | |
The International Space Station, the Chinese Space Station, and the Hubble Space Telescope are generally visible to the naked eye, even from locations that are not ideal for satellite watching. Factors that reduce visibility are:
Many of the satellites listed in the group (> 100) are only visible under ideal situations, such as from dark sky locations with minimal light pollution. | |
Can I manually trigger a recalculation of the sighting opportunities? | |
Yes, you can manually trigger a recalculation of the sighting opportunities by clicking the 'Refresh' button, shown with the label at the very top right of the Sightings page. | |
If my observer locations are not being saved when I go back to the website. | |
This website stores your observer locations in the web browser's local storage. If you're using private browsing mode, or have cookies disabled, your browser may disable access to local storage and your locations will be lost when the page is closed. Note: Browser local storage is a web storage mechanism that enables websites to store data persistently on a user's device within their web browser. This data, stored as key-value pairs, persists even after the browser is closed and reopened, unlike session storage which clears upon closing the tab. If you browser does not allow saving to local storage you can minimise the inconvenience by saving your configured location(s) to a file using the button provided on the 'Observer Locations' page. | |
What is the Clock Check on the Tools page? | |
The Clock Check provides information for you to confirm that the system clock is correct on your device. It compares the current time on your local device with the current time on the web server. The web server is located in Ohio, USA. | |
What is the Satellite Data information shown on the Tools page? | |
Used for debugging purposes. It shows when the orbital data for satellites was downloaded from the remote web server. The data is used by this web application running in the browser to perform the necessary calculations to list possible satellite viewing opportunities for the specified GPS location. | |
What is Anonymous Mode in the Tools page? | |
Anonymous Mode minimises your web footprint (or digital footprint) when using this web application by removing (hiding) the following features:
The features above are for your convenience when configuring the web application. They are not required for the normal operation of the web application if you manually enter your location details. Note that sighting predictions are calculated directly in your own web browser, not on the web server. |