who watches the watchers?
So I was like out star gazing, sort of. I mean, one can’t really star gaze in KL but let’s not get our knickers in a wad over semantics. I was star staring and thought I saw a satellite. I had an Aha! moment (no, not an 80′s flashback but a Martin Gardner reference) about the possibility of tracking satellites on Google Earth. I mean, what can GE *not* do, really apart from having babies for you?
I found an incredible placemarker at the Google Earth Community which tracks multiple orbital satellites in real time (link here). The guy who created it uses GPS information pulled from various online resources so this is as real time as it gets. What’s more, he even included cute icons for the satellites. Awww…
For those of you who haven’t gotten around to joining the GE cult I’ve got Xavier Jubier’s page that essentially uses an interactive Google Map to do the same job. It only tracks the Hubble and the International Space Station however – ISS / Hubble Interactive Google Map. Jubier’s entire website en anglais is worth a look-see if you’re into space geekery.
The tinfoil-hat-making cottage industry will be ready for public listing any day now.
UPDATE: This download for Google Earth doesn’t seem to be working at the moment. Very disappointing. If you visit Google Earth Hacks (not affiliated w/ GE) you can search for a placemarker that tracks the ISS. Registration required but fairly painless. Still looking for one that’ll track the Hubble…
This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2006 at 12:21 am and is filed under Geek Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.