Overhead
Help
How each part of Overhead works, and where the content and code come from.
Astronautics
News
The Astronautics page shows a rotating carousel of space agency and mission headlines. Hover or click an article to pause the carousel and hold it in place; click through to read the full story at its original source.
Events
The Events page lists upcoming launches, meteor showers, eclipses, and the ISS. Click "Use my location" to sort launches by distance from you — this is optional, and nothing is sent anywhere until you do.
Night Sky map
The Night Sky page renders a live dome map of stars, planets, the Sun, and Moon positioned exactly where they are above your location right now. On mobile, tap AR Sky View to overlay the same labels on your camera feed — point your phone at the sky and match up what you see.
Rocket Simulator
The Simulator shows an interactive 3D rocket. Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom, hover a part to pop it out, and click it for details.
Aviation
News
The Aviation page works the same way as Astronautics news — a rotating carousel of headlines from independent aviation publications, linking out to the original articles.
Events
The Events page lists major airshows and aviation history milestones.
Flight Radar
The Flight Radar is a live, full-screen map of aircraft near your location, sourced from a public ADS-B feed. Set your location and search radius from the bar at the top of the map; aircraft positions refresh automatically.
Aircraft Simulator
The Simulator shows an interactive 3D aircraft. Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom, hover a section to pop it out, and click it for details.
Licensing & copyright
Third-party content. News headlines, article excerpts, and images sourced from news feeds remain the property of their original publishers. Overhead links out to the original source for every article and does not claim ownership of, or rehost, third-party editorial content.
Third-party data. Launch schedules, ISS position, flight positions, and star and planet data are sourced from the public APIs and datasets listed on the About page, each under its own provider's terms.
Open-source libraries. Overhead is built with several open-source libraries — Astronomy Engine, d3-celestial, Leaflet, and three.js — each used under its own open-source license. See the About page for links to each project.
Overhead's own code and design. The site's own code, layout, and visual design are © 2026 Overhead. If you'd like to reuse any of it, reach out via the Contact page.
Frequently asked questions
What is ADS-B tracking, and how does Overhead's flight radar use it?
ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast) is the system most aircraft use to broadcast their own GPS position, altitude, speed, and heading over radio every second or two. Overhead's Flight Radar reads that broadcast data from the public airplanes.live feed and plots it on a live map, refreshing automatically about every 45 seconds — the same underlying data source that powers many other flight-tracking sites.
How accurate is Overhead's night sky map?
The positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets are computed with Astronomy Engine, an open-source astronomical calculation library, using your device's exact location and the current time (or any time you choose) — accurate to within a fraction of a degree. Star and constellation positions come from the d3-celestial catalog. It's built for visual sky-matching, including the AR Sky View camera overlay, not telescope-grade pointing.
Where does Overhead's aviation and space news come from?
Overhead doesn't write its own news — it aggregates headlines from public feeds: the Spaceflight News API for astronautics, and RSS feeds from The Aviationist, Simple Flying, AVweb, and Aviation Tech Today for aviation, merged into one carousel via an RSS-to-JSON proxy. Every card links out to the original publisher for the full article; Overhead only shows the headline, source, and a short excerpt.
Is Overhead's flight radar the same as FlightAware or Flightradar24?
It uses a related idea — public ADS-B data — but a much smaller feed: the free airplanes.live API rather than FlightAware or Flightradar24's own networks of thousands of ground receivers. That makes Overhead's radar a lightweight, no-signup way to see what's flying near you right now, not a replacement for those sites' historical tracking, alerts, or global coverage.
Does Overhead need my location, and is it stored anywhere?
No page requests your location automatically — you have to click "Use my
location" on Events, Night Sky, or Flight Radar for it to ask. If you do, your
coordinates are saved only in your browser's localStorage, never sent to an
Overhead server, since there isn't one. The Privacy page lists
exactly which third-party APIs your coordinates get sent to when you use each feature.
Can I use the 3D rocket and aircraft simulators on my phone?
Yes — both simulators are built with three.js and respond to touch the same way they respond to a mouse: drag to rotate, pinch to zoom, tap a part to see its details. They're stylized, not-to-scale models built for exploring how a rocket or aircraft is put together, not engineering-accurate replicas.
Still have a question?
If something isn't working, or you have feedback, use the Contact page to send a message directly — no account needed.