Show HN: See a Satellite Tonight. No Telescope Required
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderFor whoever built this app: I was checking HN in bed. I clicked your app and noticed the ISS would be passing overhead in less than a minute. My reaction was to immediately jump up, yell at my kids to run with me outside. We didn't know where to look, but then I figured out how to load the streetview and saw that it would be closer to the horizon and BOOM. We finally saw it zooming across the night…
funny to see this today - I just used it yesterday for the first time, and saw the ISS fly by above Seattle, with the naked eye. Was so cool! coolest part was, I saw it pass by sometime around 8:00pm. Made dinner. Ate. Did the dishes. Now it's around 10pm. Checked the app again, and... the ISS was passing by again in ~5mins. Looked out the window, and... there it is! I had this moment of total awe -…
The question should be, how to not see a satellite. Even looking up for 3 minutes I can see at least one satellite flying over on a clear night. For context, this is rural, south-west France (Lot-et-Garonne) with little to no light pollution.
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 1179
- Total comments
- 227
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-09-21 | Show HN: See a Satellite Tonight. No Telescope RequiredFirst breakout · Best thread | modeless | 863 | 152 |
| 2021-03-30 | See a Satellite Tonight | rbanffy | 221 | 50 |
| 2022-11-01 | See a Satellite TonightLatest 20+ point return | jonbaer | 89 | 25 |
| 2025-06-20 | See a Satellite Tonight | LorenDB | 2 | 0 |
| 2025-08-24 | See a Satellite Tonight | simonpure | 4 | 0 |