Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to A JSON API for NASA HORIZONS Planetary Ephemeris Tables
I don't always all-caps, but when I do, it's because every word is an acronym. The NASA HORIZONS[1] system is a telnet service that provides planetary data and ephemeris tables, which are basically coordinate-time plots for celestial bodies. It's pretty archaic and somewhat difficult to use, especially since it just dumps out text tables and you have to parse it to do anything with it. Some projects, e.g. KDE Marble, use it as a data source and typically just consume it with a little procedural code to get what they need. I wanted to provide a full-fledged library for it so that you can…
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 2 we have checked on their own sites, 2 of them free or with a free tier. A JSON API for NASA HORIZONS Planetary Ephemeris Tables launched in 2013; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
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Atlas of Spacefree▲770Hello HN! Sharing a recent side project of mine, the Atlas of Space, that I built out to explore the Solar System. As a long-time space nerd, I realized recently that I didn't have a good intuition on the scale, speed, and relative orientation of the celestial bodies around us. So over the break I built out a kind of spatial Wikipedia to click around and learn about planets, moons, asteroids, and other bodies orbiting the Sun. The physics is all simulated in the browser using simple Newtonian mechanics. There's a lot left to do from here, including modeling objects in non-Keplerian orbits…
2025 · atlasof.space · its alternatives →
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24d ago · space.bl2.net · its alternatives →
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AstraPixelsfree tier, from $5/mo▲267A pixel-art solar system at its real current positions.
Aug 2026 · astrapixels.com · its alternatives →
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🌙 The minimal & fast library for functional user interfaces - kbrsh/moon
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
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This is a service I've built to provide equirectangular cloud maps of the whole Earth, updated every 3 hours, for free. It's based on infrared and visible light data from EUMETSAT, processed to enhance the clouds and try to reduce the impact of surface temperatures on the final image. I built it because it's surprisingly hard to find these kinds of images in a format that's useful to developers and hobbyists. I was building a 3D ISS tracker and wanted to include live clouds but couldn't find anything good, so I got sidetracked, and here we are.
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 7AD
2022 · nasa-apod.portaldocs.dev · its alternatives →
- 8MA
Made a little Artemis II tracker for anyone else who is unnecessarily invested in this mission: https://artemis-ii-tracker.com/ For those of us who apparently need a dedicated place to monitor this mission instead of behaving like well-adjusted people.
Apr 2026 · artemis-ii-tracker.com · its alternatives →
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PixelSpace▲68A tediously accurate scale model of the solar system
2014 · joshworth.com · its alternatives →
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Spatium▲182Hi there, humans! I'm excited to announce Spatium! I'm a big fan of any topic related to our universe. I'm also a developer, so I've put these things together and I built this new tab Chrome Extension for space lovers, astronomy fans, and science geeks like me. If you enjoyed it, please spread some love <3 FEATURES • Space images • Every day, get a fascinating image of our universe. Enjoy pictures of stars, planets, moons, galaxies, nebulae, comets and more right on your browser tab. • Sun Widget • Find out when the sunrise, sunset, first and last light times will be precisely at your…
2021 · spatium.earth · its alternatives →
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This is a little hobby project that I hope you enjoy. You can see where the International Space Station is now, with live HD video from NASA, on a realistic 3D globe. The positions of the sun and moon are also accurate, though distances aren't to scale. The clouds are also near-realtime; I span that out into a separate project at https://clouds.matteason.co.uk, where the cloud images I create from EUMETSAT data are freely available. I've got more features almost ready to go, like the ability to turn off all UI, toggleable clouds and turning off the day/night cycle I'd love for…
2024 · iss.matteason.co.uk · its alternatives →
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3D visualization of NASA meteor shower data. Scientifically accurate and fully interactive.
2015 · ianww.com · its alternatives →
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Hello, I am the creator and maintainer of Stellarium Mobile. I have been working in my free time for about a year on this new project Galaxium, that is more about traveling in the universe rather than looking at the sky from Earth. It is still experimental, and at the moment I am not sure what it will become. Feedback is welcome.
Aug 2026 · galaxium.app · its alternatives →
- 16GC
Hi HN, I’d like to share a project I’ve been working on called GalaxyBrain. It’s a tool for organizing information. Key features: Embeddable dynamic metadata: as you type, metadata is generated in the background. This metadata can be accessed and embedded directly into the page. Light programming concepts built in: you can add custom values (think variables) to any page, then reference those values across different pages to build dynamic relationships. Metadata can be chained together: referencing values on other pages, or by using a formula. Updates to anything flow through the entire…
2025 · its alternatives →
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There are plenty of Artemis II trackers out there. I looked at a bunch and kept running into the same issues - some had data that didn't look right, it was hard to use on smaller screen, others felt overly complicated for what I actually wanted to know: what's the crew doing, where is Orion, how fast is it going. The best one I found was issinfo.net/artemis, which inspired a lot of the design. So I built my own. The part that was genuinely interesting to me was the data. Turns out anyone can query JPL's Horizons API for full ephemeris data on the Orion spacecraft - position, velocity,…
Apr 2026 · artemis.fyi · its alternatives →
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Hey HN! I made Orbit, an iOS app that allows you to see the satellites, planets, and constellations above you in AR, on a 2D map, and on a 3D globe. The app includes more than 15,000 objects tracked by CelesTrack, together with their pass predictions, descriptions, and detailed orbital data. A searchable catalog of all objects is also available, as well as a built-in chatbot designed to answer any space-related questions you might have. This is my first published iOS app, so any feedback is greatly appreciated! App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6772174570
Jul 2026 · nagylukas.github.io · its alternatives →
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Ouranos API▲63Weather service and API specialized in astronomy
2023 · rapidapi.com · its alternatives →
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Hi HN, I started building Datastripes as part of my thesis, trying to answer a simple question: How can non-technical teams turn raw data into insights without relying on developers or BI tools? What began as research has now grown into a working product, built by a small team, focused on solving that exact problem. Datastripes is a no-code platform for creating dashboards and data visualizations in minutes: no SQL, no setup, no friction. What it does: Connects to CSVs, Google Sheets, or APIs Drag-and-drop dashboard builder Shareable via public links or embed Fully browser-based We’re…
Jan 2026 · datastripes.com · its alternatives →
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We just released 1.0 of SpacetimeDB, a database designed for real-time games and applications built in Rust and using WebAssembly stored procedures for running server-side logic.
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →