Orbitrack is your desktop and pocket guide to the thousands of satellites in orbit around our home planet.
Orbitrack's main view shows the sky at your location, satellites orbiting the Earth, the view from a satellite, or a satellite's ground track. Switch views with the toolbar.
Satellites are displayed as bright green "stars". Tap any satellite to select it. Your selected satellite's orbit is shown as a green line.
Swipe the screen to center different parts of the sky chart. Pinch to zoom in or out.
Tap-and-hold the + and - zoom buttons to continously zoom in and out in Sky view.
Tap-and-hold the ▲ and ▼ buttons to move toward or away from the Earth in Orbit view, or the satellite in Satellite view.
The status bar above the sky chart shows your location, and the simulated date and time. "Current Location" is your device's GPS coordinates.
Below the status bar are the sky chart's center coordinates, and the field-of-view width x height in degrees.
The toolbar below the sky chart lets you switch the view, and control Orbitrack. Swipe it left-right to see all buttons, if they are not visible at once.
The toolbar's first four buttons present different views of the sky chart:
Sky view shows the satellites that are visible from your location on Earth.
Orbit view shows where satellites are orbiting over Earth, using a 3D model of the globe.
Satellite view shows the "bird's eye view" from a particular satellite, along with a 3D spacecraft model.
Ground Track view shows where your satellite is orbiting over Earth using a 2D map of the world.
The other toolbar buttons let you control Orbitrack's other functions:
Motion turns your device's motion sensors on or off, letting you track your selected satellite in "Augmented Reality".
Center centers your selected satellite in the sky chart.
Search lets you find a satellite by name, or choose one from categorized satellite lists.
Info shows information about a satellite: both the "facts and figures" data, and a mission description in "plain English" - often with images of the spacecraft.
Settings lets you customize your location, and the other views in the app.
Time shows controls which let you set the time, animate sky chart continuously, or adjust time step-by-step.
Night changes Orbitrack's appearance to red-on-black, to preserve your night vision when you're using it to find satellites in the sky after dark.
Help shows detailed built-in help for all of Orbitrack's functions.
Note: this feature is only available in the iOS version of Orbitrack now. We plan to add it to the Android version soon!
Tap the Motion button, ilt your device up toward to sky to activate Augmented Reality (AR) mode. In AR mode, Orbitrack shows the part of sky where you're holding your phone. Identify satellites by holding your phone up next to them. Touch the sky chart to turn AR off.
In Sky view, with Motion turned on, a camera icon appears. Tap it to overlay video from your camera on the sky chart, to see where satellites appear relative to your local surroundings. Note: this feature is only available on the iOS version of Orbitrack. It is planned for addition to the Android version soon!
You can also use AR to find satellites in the sky. Tap Search, and select (or enter the name of) the satellite you want to find. Tap Locate, then follow the arrow with your phone to center the satellite. You are now pointing toward the satellite in the sky!
Note: this feature is only available in the iOS version of Orbitrack now. We plan to add it to the Android version soon!
Tilt your phone sideways to landscape mode for Virtual Reality (VR) mode that lets you display the Sky, Orbit, and Satellite views in stereo.
You can use a smartphone VR viewer like DodoCase or Google Cardboard to see the stereo views in 3D.
As you look around with your phone inside a VR viewer, you'll see the Sky, Orbit, and Satellite views in all directions. In Sky view, your phone renders the sky in the direction you're really looking. The Orbit and Satellite views are rendered in 3D, so you'll see depth.
Use voice commands like "Sky view", "Orbit view", "Zoom in", "Zoom out" to control Orbitrack when your phone is inside your VR headset!
We hope you enjoy using Orbitrack!