Author Topic: Mac app for plotting satellite orbits and more! (Read 14644 times)

RichardF · « **on:** 03/29/2013 09:53 pm »

I have been closely involved with satellite launches for many years and while sitting in the control room I've been frustrated by the lack of any Mac application which would show the orbits of satellites with multiple ground stations. So eventually I decided to write my own, in my spare time.

Once I got it working, many of my colleagues started using it. I got requests like: "can it show the South Atlantic Anomaly?", and "can we adjust the time to show future and past events?". I've added these. As well, I added things I wanted, like showing when satellites would be visible in the night sky, by including features to show when they are illuminated by the sun while the observer is in darkness. I even found a way to download and show relatively recent cloud cover too.

Obviously the app can download satellite elements from the internet and the satellites to be plotted can be selected with powerful database functionality based on SQL.

For ground stations, there is also an SQL database of many active stations, and special purpose ground stations like DORIS beacons and satellite laser ranging stations. Many of these stations include the local horizon obstructions. New stations can easily be added, and the horizon editor is available for these too.

You can examine the breakdown of the two-line elements 'TLEs' into more easily understood orbital elements in a special window. You can plot past and future positions of satellites using a special time control.

Next, my colleagues asked me to put it on the Mac App Store, so I wrote an extensive user's manual (which is available under the Help menu).

Some idea of the app in action can be seen in the attachment images

The app is $12.99 -- and this is for an application which has been 3 years in the making and been used for real-life planning of satellite operations!

This link goes directly to the Mac App Store.
iTunes.com/Mac/SatTrackerBasic

The official link is here, but somehow on my machine, at least, it doesn't work yet.
AppStore.com/Mac/SatTrackerBasic

And if nothing else works, just try searching directly on the Mac App Store for SatTrackerBasic.

If you have a request for additional functionality, let me know.

cheers,
Richard

(This is not spam, this is a sponsored thread).

QuantumG · « **Reply #1 on:** 03/29/2013 10:19 pm »

Welcome to the forum! Are you planning on making an iPhone version?

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #2 on:** 03/29/2013 10:20 pm »

And just to let everyone know, this thread has been posted with permission of the site.

Looks epic - feedback is welcomed.

RichardF · « **Reply #3 on:** 03/29/2013 10:48 pm »

Quote from: QuantumG on 03/29/2013 10:19 pm

Welcome to the forum! Are you planning on making an iPhone version?

An iOS version in the medium term (6-12 months), yes. It needs a complete change of development environment though, which I was anyway planning for that sort of timescale.

But I think the iPhone screen may be a bit on the small side -- I was thinking more iPad-ish.

cheers,
Richard

Longhorn John · « **Reply #4 on:** 03/29/2013 11:30 pm »

Looks amazing, but I suspect most people will be like me, using a PC.

QuantumG · « **Reply #5 on:** 03/29/2013 11:57 pm »

I actually own a Mac.. it's hooked up to my tv. Cost me $11 which, at the time, seemed expensive considering it couldn't even write to NTFS formatted harddrives out of the box

Moonwatcher · « **Reply #6 on:** 03/30/2013 01:56 am »

Quote from: RichardF on 03/29/2013 09:53 pm

Next, my colleagues asked me to put it on the Mac App Store, so I wrote an extensive user's manual (which is available under the Help menu).

Some idea of the app in action can be seen in the attachment images

The app is $12.99 -- and this is for an application which has been 3 years in the making and been used for real-life planning of satellite operations!

Setting down my iPad to go grab my MacBook and get on the App Store.
You just killed the rest of my evening...

Thanks!

- Bob

Moonwatcher · « **Reply #7 on:** 03/30/2013 02:58 am »

Quote from: Moonwatcher on 03/30/2013 01:56 am

Quote from: RichardF on 03/29/2013 09:53 pm

Next, my colleagues asked me to put it on the Mac App Store, so I wrote an extensive user's manual (which is available under the Help menu).

Some idea of the app in action can be seen in the attachment images

The app is $12.99 -- and this is for an application which has been 3 years in the making and been used for real-life planning of satellite operations!

Setting down my iPad to go grab my MacBook and get on the App Store.
You just killed the rest of my evening... Thanks!

- Bob

First impressions... Easy to set up and use. Nice display.

Well worth the price. Looking forward to further developments, and the iOS version.

- Bob

STS Tony · « **Reply #8 on:** 03/30/2013 04:13 am »

I think I'll be treating myself to this in the not too distant future!

Got to ask, you say "or many years and while sitting in the control room". Oh!? What control room?

RichardF · « **Reply #9 on:** 03/30/2013 11:34 am »

Quote

Got to ask, you say "or many years and while sitting in the control room". Oh!? What control room?

The Main Control Room at ESOC, ESA's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany. What triggered this app was my experience during the CryoSat-2 launch in April 2010.

You can see a replay of the launch, up to 2nd stage ignition on ESA's CryoSat web site:
www.esa.int/cryosat
Look for the link in the bar on the right hand side. It's interesting because the launch vehicle is a converted Russian SS-18, the biggest ICBM there is, as far as I know. And it's a silo launch, from a test silo in Baikonur.

I've just put a longer (about 1.5 minutes) video on Youtube, which was put together by my step-son as a souvenir.

That's me being interviewed at the end. In some shots you can see my Mac laptop on the console, at the end -- if only I'd had this app then! We had the predicted TLE from our flight dynamics support, and that's the reason SatTrackerBasic can read in local TLE files ...

cheers,
Richard

David AF · « **Reply #10 on:** 03/30/2013 02:53 pm »

Looks like a fantastic app. Also a PC user, but certainly looks like great work.

RichardF · « **Reply #11 on:** 03/31/2013 08:24 pm »

Thanks for the kind comments. It's always nice to know that the work is appreciated, even by those on PCs who can't use it.

Actually I know that only about 10% of users are on Macs, but this app filled a gap where there's no equivalent Mac software, while Windows has a few already.

cheers,
Richard

Targeteer · « **Reply #12 on:** 03/31/2013 08:30 pm »

Quote from: RichardF on 03/30/2013 11:34 am

Quote
Got to ask, you say "or many years and while sitting in the control room". Oh!? What control room?

Look for the link in the bar on the right hand side. It's interesting because the launch vehicle is a converted Russian SS-18, the biggest ICBM there is, as far as I know.

NATO appropriately named it SATAN

I've loaded the app and now I need to figure out loading the TLEs...

RichardF · « **Reply #13 on:** 03/31/2013 08:40 pm »

Quote from: Targeteer on 03/31/2013 08:30 pm

NATO appropriately named it SATAN

I know! But on the other hand, it was blessed by a Russian Orthodox priest, with holy water, before the launch!

Quote from: Targeteer on 03/31/2013 08:30 pm

I've loaded the app and now I need to figure out loading the TLEs...

Go to the Preferences menu and in the first tab there are the sets TLE files as stored on the Celestrak site. Mark the checkbox next to the ones you're interested in. Then click the download button.

This downloads the requested files, unpacks them and stores the individual satellites in an internal SQLlite database.

Then go to the next tab, Satellites, and tick the ones you're interested in. Mark the checkbox of each one you want to track (you can select multiple satellites).

After you click OK on the Preferences window your choices will be put into action.

You can also find all these details, and more, in the User's Manual, accessible under the Help menu as SatTrackerBasic Help.

cheers,
Richard

Hlacoste · « **Reply #14 on:** 04/01/2013 11:52 am »

I've got the app. Easy to use once you remember to go to the preferences...
Great app! Good job. Sorry for Windows users... and btw great movie!

Jester · « **Reply #15 on:** 04/02/2013 04:00 pm »

Ah Richard a fellow ESTEC man, welcome !

Always these EOP people with Mac toys ;-)

Rangers75 · « **Reply #16 on:** 04/02/2013 07:00 pm »

This is really beautiful and surprisingly powerful, but without straining the CPU. Thanks Richard.

RichardF · « **Reply #17 on:** 04/08/2013 11:45 am »

To all those who posted nice comments here:

Firstly, thanks very much for the kind words -- it's always nice to know that something that took so long to develop is appreciated.

And secondly, would you mind copying and pasting the comments into the review field in the Mac App Store? I would be most grateful!

thanks,
Richard

chandawg · « **Reply #18 on:** 04/28/2013 05:14 pm »

Is there a way to add manual TLE data? I see the option to add a user file, and every time I point it to a .txt file with TLE data in it, it doesn't show up in the satellite tab?

RichardF · « **Reply #19 on:** 04/28/2013 06:53 pm »

This should be the way it works. Let me check it.

RichardF · « **Reply #20 on:** 04/28/2013 07:15 pm »

Congratulations! you found the first bug.

Actually this bug was a consequence of Celestrak increasing the number of datasets to include the Breeze debris.

I can confirm that it exists, as you describe, and that I have just fixed it here. I will submit an update to the Mac App Store ASAP, and we will see how long it takes to appear.

If you need an update of the executable before that, let me know and I'll see how that could be done.

JimOman · « **Reply #21 on:** 05/01/2013 07:38 pm »

That app looks gorgeous.

Does anyone know of a good one like this for android or windows? Haven't had much luck so far.

I run Android Jelly Bean on my tab and phone and Windows 8 on my laptop.

Jim

RichardF · « **Reply #22 on:** 05/01/2013 07:57 pm »

Thanks for the compliment!

I can't help you with Android, but for Windows I know of a few. It has to be said that I built SatTrackerBasic (and the coming SatTracker (not Basic)) with particular requirements in mind. So not all features are present in all softwares.

Anyway, for Windows, there is Nova (http://www.nisa.com) and Orbitron (www.stoff.pl). It's this last, Orbitron, which was used on the big screen at ESA's ESOC control centre, which prompted me to write SatTrackerBasic.

There are, of course, other Windows solutions, like Satellite Toolkit (STK, see www.agi.com). This is a truly excellent software, but is priced well out of the reach of individuals.

Hope this helps.

cheers,
Richard

JimOman · « **Reply #23 on:** 05/01/2013 08:23 pm »

I'll check those out, thank you!

Jim

RichardF · « **Reply #24 on:** 05/03/2013 01:25 pm »

Quote from: RichardF on 04/28/2013 07:15 pm

I can confirm that it exists, as you describe, and that I have just fixed it here. I will submit an update to the Mac App Store ASAP, and we will see how long it takes to appear.

It took a bit longer to make the Mac App Store submission, since I was away from my main development machine at the start of the week. However it is now done: submitted yesterday.

For your information I reinforced the TLE checking at the same time (for all TLEs, but intended to catch malformed local files). In particular, note that the TLE format should comply exactly with the standard, including the validity of the checksum field and that the length of the two data lines shall be exactly 69 characters (no trailing spaces).

cheers,
Richard

RichardF · « **Reply #25 on:** 05/09/2013 12:11 pm »

Version 1.0.1, with the bug-fix for local files of TLEs, is now in the Mac App Store. About a week turn-around since I submitted it.

cheers,
Richard

daj24 · « **Reply #26 on:** 05/09/2013 01:10 pm »

Can't wait to get home and load it. No more VM of windows to do sat tracking! Thanks so much!

Overflow · « **Reply #27 on:** 06/11/2013 01:44 am »

One sad windows user here..

LOX · « **Reply #28 on:** 07/27/2013 10:23 am »

A big thank you to Richard Francis for sharing his satellite tracker and making it available for us Mac Users. Mac Users have been neglected for far too long when it comes to having a professional looking satellite tracker. At one stage, I very nearly went back to being a Windows User because I used to have the excellent WXTrack and Orbitron.

I was having withdrawal symptoms. I was fed-up having to go Online all the time to use various website trackers. Now I've got my own again. SatTrackerBasic looks so cool on my iMac when used in full screen. It's so easy to use, is highly configurable to your own liking and works flawlessly. I can't praise it enough.

Here are three screen grabs of my current set-up. The first Map (NASA Blue Marble) shows clouds of the last 24 hours which is downloaded from Xplanetclouds every 24 hours or every three if you take out a subscription.

The second screen grab shows without clouds and the third shows the plain map without clouds.

Richard mentions on his website, ClearAndDark, that there will be enhanced versions called SatTracker and SatTracker Pro.

RichardF · « **Reply #29 on:** 06/11/2014 12:17 pm »

Hi. I'm Richard, the author of SatTrackerBasic. The app hasn't been updated in rather a long time as I've been very busy, both at work and in my free time (building an observatory in my free time, by the way).

But I'm working up to a major update, which will also see the title change to simply SatTracker (I can barely keep up with the one version, so clearly 3 is too much). I have in mind AOS and LOS predictions as well as predictions of satellite transits in front of the Sun and Moon.

In the meantime, somebody has posted a most unkind but unspecific review on the US App Store: "I've used most every satellite tracking program released in the past 30 years. This one clearly is the lamest. In fact if this was released 25 years ago I would still give it a one star rating. Not worth .99 cents let alone 13.00. This is something you'd expect to find on a 1990 shareware diskette."

If you disagree with this review, please post a review of your own. In any case, please rate the app!

thanks,
Richard

Star One · « **Reply #30 on:** 06/11/2014 02:56 pm »

For myself I prefer using sky trackers on my iPad. Things like VR mode & the whole concept of having it on a mobile device I find easier.

Do you have any plans to do an iOS version?

RichardF · « **Reply #31 on:** 06/11/2014 03:04 pm »

That's on the radar for sure, but I need a lot more time. That's because it needs a switch away from the development environment I'm using (Xojo) to Xcode. I have been planning to make this switch for exactly the reason to bring it to iOS, but, if my commitments remain as foreseen, that's about a year away.

cheers,
Richard

Star One · « **Reply #32 on:** 06/11/2014 05:34 pm »

Quote from: RichardF on 06/11/2014 03:04 pm

That's on the radar for sure, but I need a lot more time. That's because it needs a switch away from the development environment I'm using (Xojo) to Xcode. I have been planning to make this switch for exactly the reason to bring it to iOS, but, if my commitments remain as foreseen, that's about a year away.

cheers,
Richard

That's good to hear I look forward to seeing.

LOX · « **Reply #33 on:** 07/24/2014 12:38 am »

Quote from: RichardF on 06/11/2014 12:17 pm

But I'm working up to a major update, which will also see the title change to simply SatTracker (I can barely keep up with the one version, so clearly 3 is too much). I have in mind AOS and LOS predictions as well as predictions of satellite transits in front of the Sun and Moon.

That's great news to read Richard. I was beginning to wonder if and when you were going to find time to update satTracker.

Quote from: RichardF on 06/11/2014 12:17 pm

In the meantime, somebody has posted a most unkind but unspecific review on the US App Store: "I've used most every satellite tracking program released in the past 30 years. This one clearly is the lamest. In fact if this was released 25 years ago I would still give it a one star rating. Not worth .99 cents let alone 13.00. This is something you'd expect to find on a 1990 shareware diskette."

If you disagree with this review, please post a review of your own. In any case, please rate the app!

I wrote a review on the UK Mac App store back in July 2013 resulting in 3 out of 3 Users who found it helpful. I am the only person to have done so at the moment. The AOS features is one of the options I mentioned so glad to see that you will be implementing that feature.

Although mobile devices have become extremely popular over the last few years I do worry about the future of the desktop PC. Many astronomy apps I have on my desktop haven't been updated for a couple of years now but IOS versions frequently do. I can't help thinking if developers are slowly turning their backs on Mac OSX.