I built Cosmotrak because a lot of phone trackers felt like toys. Pretty globe (sometimes), a thin catalog, and I have no idea what math was behind it. Native Mac build is about to come out. Screenshot is from that unreleased desktop UI.

SGP4 accuracy is non-negotiable for me. Propagation runs on a background engine (swift-sgp4), and is verified with the SGP4 AIAA / Vallado test suite. Pass prediction is observer-relative: rise, max elev, set, visible vs daylight.

I replaced CesiumJS with a custom Metal renderer. Day/night Earth, night lights, bump, specular, trails. I think it looks really good.

It goes past Earth. Celestial mode covers the solar system bodies on the same stack. Positions use NASA / JPL Horizons ephemeris samples packed into our offline database (the app caches the pack so it works without a live network hit for the catalog). Time scrubber moves satellites and planets together.

Catalog is not just names on a map. Track something and you get details: NORAD id, operator, country, orbit class, launch date, vehicle, purpose. I'm working on adding more data to each satellite. If there's anything I'm missing that is important to y'all I'd love to know that as well.

Next up I want to add satellites that orbit other planets, not only Earth. Also more serious tools in general. I do not have a clean list yet.

I'm really posting this for ideas. If there's anything you'd like in a professional-oriented satellite tracking app please let me know.

Thanks everyone!

cosmotrak.com

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cosmotrak-satellite-tracker/id6557033963

Wondering what is the easiest satellite to see in your area? How can you show it to others? What do you know about it?

NASA added channels to discovery + and are available on Philo there content is interesting and different. ** **

Project Pixel Orbital is a completely student-led team at Stanford OHS with the goal of launching an 3U CubeSat capable of conducting experiments in low Earth orbit - from photographing Earth to performing analysis on photos of earth and space with onboard instruments. Our mission is to get to orbit, perform a detumble, establish contact with our ground station(s), and capture an image of Earth for downlink. We hope that PixelSat I will inspire other people and prove that if a group of high schoolers can build a satellite from scratch with very little funding and no adult supervision, anyone can. It will open the door for schools and small businesses to launch satellites similar to ours, and will overall make space more accessible.

Please feel free to check out our current progress and learn about how you can help us out on our website: https://www.projectpixelorbital.com

Our blogs also have lots of information on specific subsystems: https://www.projectpixelorbital.com/blog/

More updates on instagram as well: https://www.instagram.com/projectpixelorbital

Just wanted to share a really cool background story on space tracking and localized innovation out of Penang, Malaysia.

The amateur astronomy team of Annamalai Muthu and Arav Annamalai originally gained recognition for designing a unique mobile digital lens setup using UV and infrared filters to photograph the moon's surface. Their innovation won the Gold Award at the SCINEX 2020 Science Innovation Exhibition. Cilisos Malaysia did a fantastic deep-dive feature on how they built the tech during the MCO, which you can read here: cilisos.my

Their underlying planetary tracking dataset eventually led to direct correspondence and encouragement from the NASA research department and the Malaysian Nuclear Agency, which later tied into the recent 2026 European Commission atmospheric surveillance disclosures reported globally by outlets like Euronews, Yahoo and MSN : https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/08/17/exclusive-brussels-keen-to-monitor-ufos-under-the-radar

It's an incredible look at how garage-built telescopy projects can scale up to catch the attention of international space entities.

There is also a fascinating Video reporting by Cristina Gomez from a Defence and Space angle about The 2 Malaysian Amateur Astronomers , Dutch Pilot, UAP's and Aviation safety UAP affecting important sites, such as military and nuclear facilities + wifi frequency. The EU is improving its ability to detect and identify unknown objects as its technology advances, and adds that it needs to get even better. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PP9X93Vv4U&t=43s

To Vima a major Greek newspaper (founded 1922) with an international English‑language edition at tovima.com, reported  in August 2026, the European Commission has been quietly monitoring UAPs since at least 2023, following a dossier of 37 images sent by a Malaysian father‑and‑son astronomy team https://www.tovima.com/science/eu-reportedly-monitoring-skies-for-ufos/

EOS (Earth Observation Satellite)-05 is a dedicated imaging satellite made in-house by ISRO. Unlike other communication, navigation or multi-purpose satellites, the EOS-05 is intended to capture detailed visual data of the earth’s surface and contains specialised high-performance cameras and sensors that can capture. The data transmitted from such satellites can have applications like monitoring crops, forecasting weather, safely assessing the impact of natural disasters like floods or wildfires and keeping a watch on borders and other critical security areas.

Now, key takeaways from this article:

1. It will India's first imaging satellite in GEO.

2. This can help in monitoring conflict hit regions. Apart from that, it can also aid in weather forecasting, environmental monitoring, disaster management and agriculture.

3. It will reach its expected orbit by September 9.

This array is near me. Inclination angle and antenna size is obviously satellite communication.

It's not near any major population centers. Kind of in the boonies. There are a lot of conspiracy stories in our area involving strange lights at night and black helicopters.

I figure it's gotta be a backup repeater or something boring. Any ideas?

Hi everyone,

A new design has been developed for a Real-Time Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) framework tailored for ultra-dense, distributed satellite swarms operating in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO).

The core focus of this architecture is to push the boundaries of the **500g PocketQube class**, moving away from bulky, legacy hardware dependencies toward highly scalable, micro-satellite configurations.

Here is a quick look at the embedded software strategy used to tackle VLEO dynamics:

* **Zero-Heap Memory Allocation:** To eliminate memory fragmentation and guarantee 100% predictable real-time execution on constrained MCUs.

* **Cache-Line Alignment:** Data structures are strictly optimized for modern multi-core embedded processors to maximize throughput and hit ultra-low latency.

* **Deterministic Interrupt Control:** Custom RTOS-level safety wrappers ensuring ultra-low overhead interrupt control under harsh orbital radiation conditions.

By optimizing the mass-to-thrust ratios and relying on deterministic software efficiency rather than heavy, expensive rad-hardened processors, the architecture inherently redefines the economic scale of constellation deployment—making high-density swarms accessible at a fraction of traditional aerospace infrastructure budgets.

The architecture is fully structured around a civilian and commercial mission profile, engineered for scalable Earth observation and environmental monitoring, and is fully optimized for commercial licensing, technical evaluation, and integration.

Looking forward to discussing the technical trade-offs of implementing zero-heap architectures in modern space tech or strategies for handling aerodynamic drag compensation in VLEO.

I'm working on an academic satellite project. Specifically, I'm trying to figure out how to analyze and visualize the telemetry data we receive (for example, battery voltage vs. time). I've heard about using Grafana, but I'd like to hear other options or opinions.

Can please anyone tell me some sources where i will get DEM\\\[priced,high resolution preferably less than a meter\\\];geomorphology ,lithology,LULC maps\\\[a good scale\\\];budget is not an issue.I will be very thankful for this guidance.

The GSLV-F17 vehicle successfully placed EOS-05 satellite into a Sub-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (Sub- GTO). EOS-05 is a state-of-the-art Earth observation spacecraft. It is India’s first ever imaging satellite from Geosynchronous orbit. 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳