Source: https://github.com/n4hy/VisibleEphemerisCPP

Visible Ephemeris […]
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Visible Ephemeris

High-Performance Satellite Tracking Appliance (C++17)

Visible Ephemeris is a modern, spiritual successor to Quiktrak (1986), re-engineered for the Raspberry Pi 5 and modern silicon. It is capable of propagating 13,000+ satellites in real-time with sub-second updates while maintaining <5% CPU utilization.

It features a Hybrid Decoupled Architecture where the UI, Orbital Mechanics, and Network Services run on independent threads, ensuring the interface never freezes—even during heavy calculation loads.

🚀 Core Features

🛰️ Tracking Engine

SGP4/SDP4 Propagation: Uses libsgp4 for high-precision orbital math.
Massive Scale: Tracks the entire NORAD Active Catalog (13,000+ objects) simultaneously.
Smart Caching: Automatic TLE downloading and caching from Celestrak.
Multi-Group Selection: Track specific combinations (e.g., amateur,weather,stations) using the --groupsel argument.
**Sun and Moon always tracked except in Single Sat mode.

🖥️ Display Systems

NCurses Terminal Dashboard:
Flicker-free, color-coded real-time data table.
Horizon Flash: Visual indicator (Red/White flashing) when a satellite is rising or setting (within 1° of horizon).
Web Dashboard (Port 8080):
Mercator Map: Live ground tracks, "Red House" observer location, and auto-zoom to active horizon.
Polar Skyplot: Radar view of visible satellites with pulsing selection aura.
Smart Trails: Displays ground track history and future path (+/- N minutes).
Web Terminal Mirror (Port 12345):
Ultra-lightweight HTML mirror of the terminal output.
Uses HTTP/1.0 "Fire-and-Forget" protocol to prevent browser hanging on slow connections.

📻 Radio & Visual Modes

Optical Mode (Default): Filters satellites based on solar illumination (Sunlit satellite + Dark observer).
Radio Mode (--no-visible): Tracks all satellites above the horizon regardless of lighting conditions (Day/Night/Eclipse).
Doppler & Range Rate: Real-time calculation of relative velocity (km/s) for radio tuning.
**HAMLIB control of rotors and rigs.

The Quiktrak software written by Dr. Robert W. McGwier and referenced above was made freeware back in 2019 as mentioned in this thread. This application was developed with the aid of AI.