Although it used to be a much more rare event, now almost any time at dawn or dusk, provided clear weather, a human observer can walk outside, look up, and spot an artificial satellite passing overhead. This has caused some consternation among astronomers who have another source of pollution to deal with in their data, but has benefited society in other ways such as more reliable internet and better weather predictions. To keep an eye on what exactly is passing overhead, take a look at this tool built by [Armaan].
The browser-based satellite tracker uses simplified perturbations models (SGP4) to model the passes of every satellite that has passed a given location on Earth in the past seven days. The modeling is all done locally within the user’s browser, and can even be self-hosted through a fairly simple method that involves forking the project with a tool called Vercel. Not only does this tool find the satellite passes for that given location, though, but it also automatically downloads any imagery that those satellites sent back down to Earth.
The project itself is open source, so users can engage with the code without using Vercel if they choose. Beyond just checking out what happened to fly overhead in the last few days and checking out weather data without needing your own satellite dish to download the data yourself, this could also be useful for radio operators looking to make contacts with satellite repeaters or those wanting to keep tabs on crewed satellites like the International Space Station while it still remains in orbit.
