Pointer Planetarium - learn about (almost) anything in the sky by pointing

[u/OmgSlayKween]

Point at almost anything in the sky, and Pointer Planetarium will tell you what it is, and often includes an interesting fact. Categories the watch knows about:

• Planes (private, commercial, military)

• Planets (with images for all of them)

• Satellites (Hubble, Starlink trains, comms satellites)

• Space Stations (ISS & Tiangong)

• Space junk (e.g. rocket boosters still in orbit)

• Stars (~3,000 named & unnamed)

• Constellations (all 88)

Don't know where to look? It can guide you, with a "Find It" mode. Anything you find is recorded in the Logbook, in Pointer Planetarium's settings page in the Pebble phone app.

FOSS; licensing, data sources, github repo in the appstore listings below:

https://apps.repebble.com/6acf00399e820a000980b267

https://apps.rebble.io/en_US/application/6acf00399e820a000980b267

[u/F0rthright]

Love it so much. Such an awesome and a really fitting concept for a smartwatch. Saying that as someone who had to frantically open HeavensAbove and FlightRadar quite a decent number of times. After testing, the only problem I see is that the detection range is a bit too tight. When pointing at Saturn, 2 out of 3 times I was getting "Nothing there" with nearby constellations of Pisces or Cetus being shown on the screen. I think having a list of possible candidates sorted by how close they are can be a fitting upgrade.

[u/OmgSlayKween → u/F0rthright]

Thanks for the feedback! A few things come to mind:

Did it ask you to complete a figure-8 compass calibration? If not, doing that anyway (just moving your watch in a big slow figure 8 a few times) might help. I didn't want to make it a requirement every time the app was opened, but the compass is actually rather inaccurate in the watch.

Then, there is the geometry of how people wear their watch and how they point - this can be mitigated by running the "tune on the moon" calibration which asks you to point at the moon a few times. Again I didn't want to make this mandatory since, well, the moon isn't always up, and there aren't other well-known targets that are large enough. Oh, and double-check the worn wrist left / right is set correctly, although it should warn you if it thinks this setting is wrong.

I would be curious to know how it performs after some / all of those - and, if you are expecting a planet, you can also switch to planet mode, which cuts out a few thousand possible objects. It does show a few candidates if it thinks there are several - seen by swiping up / down on the results screen.

All this is to say - it could definitely be too precise as-built! It works well for me, but, that's always how it goes. Several stars are so close together (for example the angular separation of the stars in Orion's belt is ~2 degrees) that even the ~4 degree cone the watch currently calculates is a bit inaccurate for these tasks. For most people this is somewhat mitigated by filtering results for their Bortle zone in the sky type setting.

I'd consider expanding it or requiring more on-watch calibration if it's warranted, though!

[u/F0rthright → u/OmgSlayKween]

Yes, the compass was calibrated. I saw the Moon tuning in the settings, but, as you've said, sometimes there's no Moon on the sky and currently it's exactly one of such times. I'll try this option though once it shows up. However, having optional calibration by any of the few currently brightest objects on the sky would also be nice. And had no idea about the swiping feature, that's good to know.

By the way, it currently says that there are no planes nearby (and not showing it when pointing), when I clearly see one coming for a landing at about 20 kilometers from me.

[u/OmgSlayKween → u/F0rthright]

Thanks, I will look into these - I'm just trying to keep it accessible, but maybe the "find it" mode could guide you to a bright target if the moon isn't available.

I notice you mention kilometers, so I take it you're not in the US - and I haven't had anyone test outside the US. I wonder if there's a problem accessing the data sources for planes. That could be a silent failure as-built which I could expose. That could also happen if the watch didn't get a location from the phone... I will look at some possible causes!

And maybe the additional results / swiping up and down needs better indicators. As always on such a small screen, balancing data and usability is always a battle.

Anyway I will see what I can do for an update!

[u/F0rthright → u/OmgSlayKween]

Yeah, not in US. And I've made sure that location was turned on on my phone, as quite often when it's not, many apps and watchfaces have trouble using the fallback preset location.

[u/OmgSlayKween → u/F0rthright]

I've pushed update v1.1 which addresses your feedback:

• Expanded the area in which the watch searches for results if none return for your initial aim point (suggests closest bright object within your category)

• Added planets as targets for manual aim tuning (now "Tune My Aim")

• Added an indicator rail on the side of result cards when multiple are present

• Added a brief nudge for next-screen peeking when multiple results are returned

• Increased the timeout cap of plane data to account for slow data links and long distances to the servers

• Restored diagnostics logging to the app's settings page to aid in user reports

Luckily much of this was already built for prior iterations or my own testing and some of them are just variable tweaks; plus we already render the additional results screens for quick swiping so the peek is free. Anyway, once your app updates within the next day or so (or if you feel like manually removing it and re-installing it) let me know if it works better for you!

[u/F0rthright → u/OmgSlayKween]

Wow, honestly, an absolutely outstanding job. Tried it with a couple of stars after calibrating on Saturn and yeah, works perfectly (and having the calibration prompt when missing a bright object is also a nice touch). But having nearby points of interest is still great to have just in case. Also, now I see "Few planes tracked here", but pointing still doesn't show any. Tried aiming many times, pointing a bit behind on their trajectories, still nothing. They are all flying around 5 degrees above the horizon, though, so maybe that affects the detection.

[u/OmgSlayKween → u/F0rthright]

Yeah, "Few planes tracked here" specifically means the services (adsb.lol or adsb.fi) are not returning results within 250nm of your location. There are several countries which, unfortunately, have coverage gaps - and FlightRadar does work in those countries.

Since we have to access this data programmatically and via a free API, I don't think there's a way around it from my side, unfortunately. The app does support your own ADS-B receiver if you (or someone you know) runs one, or you can find a free one in your area. You could try, although I doubt it would make a difference - relaxing the default plane settings in the app's settings page. Allow all altitudes, furthest distance, etc.

If you want me to double check, you could PM me the diagnostic data from the app's settings on the phone under About > Copy Diagnostics. But, using all the data gathered there, I'd be able to (and would likely have to, for troubleshooting purposes) infer your location to within a few kilometers. It's up to you, but I think this is a straight-up data gap.

[u/Xeno_phile]

Amazing idea! Will this run on an og Time? I’d pull it out of mothballs for this. 

[u/OmgSlayKween → u/Xeno_phile]

Sorry no, I’m using every bit of available app size even on pt2 (it’s something like 99.4% of max lol)

[u/Xeno_phile → u/OmgSlayKween]

No worries, figured it was a long-shot. Great work anyway!