Most questions about a satellite tracker come down to two things: whether the object is actually visible from where you stand, and how old the data behind its position is. This page covers both, and everything else the atlas does.
Set your observing place - your current location or any place on Earth, each with its own time zone - and open the passes list. Each pass shows rise, peak and set with azimuth and elevation. Azimuth is the compass direction to face; elevation is how high above the horizon to look. The free app covers the Space Station, Tiangong and Hubble.
Usually one of three things. Weather is not modelled, so cloud hides a pass the geometry says is visible. Apparent brightness is not modelled either, so a low pass through haze near the horizon can be too faint. And city light swallows fainter objects - the Space Station is bright enough to beat it, Hubble often is not. A sunlit pass in a dark sky is an opportunity, not a promise.
A satellite is only visible when it is lit by the Sun while you are standing in darkness. In the middle of the night the object is usually in Earth's shadow; in daylight your sky is too bright. That leaves windows around dusk and dawn, which is why passes cluster there. Orbit Map checks both conditions and uses a 10° horizon, because the lowest few degrees are usually blocked by buildings, trees or haze.
Positions are computed from orbital elements measured at a particular moment, called the epoch. The further you are from that moment, the more small errors - mostly from atmospheric drag - accumulate. Low objects drift from their predicted position faster than high ones. The age is shown so you can judge how much to trust a position, the same way you would check the date on a weather forecast.
The propagator is a Vallado-compatible SGP4/SDP4 implementation verified against the published reference vectors, so the maths itself is right. The limit is the public General Perturbations elements it runs on: accuracy degrades as they age and can differ by kilometres. That is fine for seeing what is overhead and when, and is exactly why this is not a conjunction assessment, navigation or antenna-pointing tool.
Yes. The catalogue ships inside the app and positions are propagated on your device, so the globe, search and passes work offline from the first launch. When a connection is available, newer catalogue snapshots download - every update is signed and each byte is checked before it replaces the one you have.
Type the number into search. Every tracked object has a permanent catalogue number - the Space Station is 25544 - and it is the most reliable way to find something, because names are reused and shortened. The inspector then shows its altitude, speed, period, inclination, apogee, perigee, country and launch year.
Shortly after a launch, a batch is released together and spends days to weeks spreading out while raising to its working altitude. During that time they travel in a visible string. Once they reach operational orbit they are spaced apart and are generally much harder to see. Tap the Starlink group to see the whole constellation at once.
Payloads are the spacecraft that were launched to do something, working or dead. Rocket bodies are the upper stages that put them there and stayed in orbit. Debris is everything else that is tracked: fragments from breakups, collisions and weapons tests, plus shed hardware. Colour the field by object type and the proportions are the first thing you notice.
It propagates the whole catalogue to another moment, so you can watch where things will be or where they were. Remember that the further you move from the element epoch, the less accurate positions become - the time machine is for understanding motion, not for predicting a precise position weeks away.
54 lessons, more than eight hours, across nine modules from orbital mechanics to data literacy. Each lesson has numbers you can verify in the inspector, the misconception it corrects, two tasks to do on the globe, a comprehension check and its vocabulary. Material is sourced from NASA, ESA, CelesTrak and Space-Track.
The free atlas is complete: the whole globe, the entire catalogue, search, orbit paths, and passes for the Space Station, Tiangong and Hubble. Premium opens all 54 lessons, every constellation, the full Orbital Lens, seven-day forecasts from up to ten saved places, pass notifications, every spacecraft model, the time machine and iCloud sync.
Element sets are published object by object, not all at once. A busy low satellite may have been refreshed hours ago, while a quiet piece of debris far out may carry elements that are days old. The age shown belongs to the object you are looking at, so it is worth checking per object rather than assuming the whole catalogue is equally fresh.
It has flown into Earth's shadow. A satellite is only visible while it reflects sunlight, so when it crosses into the shadow it fades out - sometimes within a few seconds - even though it is still above your horizon. That is expected, and it is often the most striking moment of a pass.
With Premium, yes. iCloud sync keeps lesson progress, observing places and display settings together across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Vision Pro.
A live 3D atlas of about 31,900 tracked objects - Space Station passes over your roof, Starlink, GPS and debris, propagated on the device.
The pass list gives you the geometry. These steps turn it into a sighting.
Aircraft blink and have coloured lights. Satellites shine steadily and move in a smooth, unhurried line across the sky.
Try this in Orbit Map: Live 3D ISS, Starlink & Debris →Two numbers tell you almost everything: the element age and the object's altitude.
Knowing the age of your data is part of reading it. Every screen shows it for exactly that reason.
Try this in Orbit Map: Live 3D ISS, Starlink & Debris →The catalogue is more interesting as a shape than as a list.
The Orbit families module in the Academy walks through exactly this, with numbers to check at each step.
Try this in Orbit Map: Live 3D ISS, Starlink & Debris →The big screen and the lessons were designed to be used together.
With Premium, lesson progress and observing places sync through iCloud, so a lesson started on the TV can continue on an iPad.
Try this in Orbit Map: Live 3D ISS, Starlink & Debris →Names are unreliable. Numbers are not.
If a name search returns dozens of matches, the object is probably part of a series. The catalogue number is the only thing that picks out exactly one.
Try this in Orbit Map: Live 3D ISS, Starlink & Debris →Saved places, seven-day forecasts and pass notifications are Premium features, and together they mean you stop having to remember to check.
A notification is based on geometry, not weather. Glance at the cloud before you put your shoes on.
Try this in Orbit Map: Live 3D ISS, Starlink & Debris →Moving the clock is a way to understand motion. It is not a crystal ball.
The further you run from the epoch of the elements, the larger the error. For low, draggy orbits a week ahead is a rough sketch, not a prediction.
Try this in Orbit Map: Live 3D ISS, Starlink & Debris →The lessons are written to be done on the globe, not read like a book.
Premium opens all 54 lessons across the nine modules. Material is sourced from NASA, ESA, CelesTrak and Space-Track.
Try this in Orbit Map: Live 3D ISS, Starlink & Debris →A fresh batch travels as a visible line for only a short time before it spreads out.
Pass predictions cover the Space Station, Tiangong and Hubble. For Starlink, the globe and the ground track show where a group is and where it is heading.
Try this in Orbit Map: Live 3D ISS, Starlink & Debris →Our support team usually replies within one business day.
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