OrbitNight: A Free Browser-Based Satellite Pass Viewer with Antenna Rotator Control via Web Serial

Thank you to the OrbitNight team for writing in and sharing their "OrbitNight satellite radar", a free browser-based pass viewer for any satellite in the catalog. It can also point an antenna rotator straight from the browser over USB using Web Serial, so you don't need to install anything.

The radar page shows a polar plot of the pass track, live azimuth and elevation readouts, and an AOS/LOS countdown. A radio tab lists downlink and uplink frequencies taken from SatNOGS. For rotator control, it supports Yaesu GS-232 compatible controllers (including K3NG and ERC) and EasyComm II controllers like those used on SatNOGS stations connected over USB serial, or Bluetooth on Android. It also has an azimuth offset setting and a 1 degree deadband.

The site works in Chrome and Edge on desktop, and rotator control needs a browser that supports Web Serial. It's free and needs no sign-up. The team notes that there is no 450 degree or flip mode yet, and they'd like to hear from anyone who tries it with a real rotator. If you track LEO satellites with a directional antenna and an RTL-SDR, this could be a simpler option than setting up Gpredict and Hamlib. We note, however, that we couldn't find an open-source codebase.