SatSpot

Inspiration

I occasionally go to my terrace and stare at the black sky. Then I open my mobile and check the upcoming satellite and their coordinates. But I am not able to use those coordinates to navigate in the night sky. And anyone who is new in seeing objects in the sky, will not be able to easily navigate and spot satellites or other objects based on the coordinates. This leads me to make satspot.

What it does

SatSpot is a hardware hack comprising of a small laser, a compass, weight attached to the 360* protractor via thread, and a half-cut transparent plastic bottle without the cap. The compass helps in finding the horizontal rotation, i.e degrees with respect to north. The protractor with the weight attached helps in finding the vertical rotation, i.e degrees from the horizon. With the help of measurements on both instruments, you can navigate in the night sky. And with the help of bottle, you can see the region of interest only.

How we built it

I used a thermocol base and first mounted the compass, and then surrounded it with pins. This allows us to rotate the compass for calibration when needed. Then I cut the bottle from its flatter end and attached it to the base. I proceeded with making a hole in the protractor and connected the thread and weight. For the weight, I have used the cap of my pen. Then I attached the protractor device to the bottle. And lastly in the space left I attached the laser almost parrel to the bottle.

Challenges we ran into

Lack of material was the biggest issue. Luckily there was a delivery of an package midway of hackathon and could reuse its components like the thermocol to make it even better.