Map and 3D views

DroneTracker has two ways to see the airspace around the rig: a flat, radar-style map, and a 3D view that shows altitude.

To open them, use the sidebar:

• ◎ Map only: the map fills the center.
• ◫ Split view (viewport + map): video on the left, map on the right.
• ⊕ 3D topology: the 3D view.

Both views need the rig’s location. If it has not been set, ask your administrator.

The map

The map is drawn from above with the rig at the center. North is up.

What is on the map

Hover over a Remote ID diamond to see its full ID.

Range

The rings mark distance in nautical miles. The range adjusts on its own to fit the farthest contact, so always read the range in the top-left corner:

• ADS-B · n NM: the distance to the outer ring.
• SENSOR: the rig’s position.
• HDG and FOV: where the camera points and how wide it sees.

The bottom line counts contacts, for example 12 ADS-B · 1 Remote ID · 2 CV.

Selecting on the map

• Click an aircraft to show a callout with its ICAO code, Alt (altitude), GS (ground speed), and Hdg (heading). Click the same aircraft again to hide the callout.
• Click a camera target to select it. Its target card opens in the side panel. See The operator dashboard.

The 3D view

The 3D view shows the airspace around the rig in three dimensions, so you can see altitude. Two versions are available. Switch between them with the buttons at the bottom right: Cesium and Drone 3D.

Both versions share these controls at the top right:

Drag to move the camera around and scroll to zoom.

The status line at the top left shows how many contacts are tracked and whether 3D terrain loaded.

The “YOU” marker

A cyan pin labeled YOU marks the rig’s location.

Cesium

The Cesium view places aircraft on a globe with terrain.

• Aircraft heard on ADS-B appear at their real position and altitude.
• Photoreal on/off streams detailed 3D city and terrain models. It needs an internet connection and uses an online service quota, so turn it off when you are done.

Drone 3D

The Drone 3D view is drawn by your own computer. It shows aircraft heard on ADS-B and drones broadcasting Remote ID. Drones get the same trails, selection, and flight card as aircraft.

The sky follows the real time of day at the rig: blue by day, a warm glow toward the sun at dawn and dusk, and dark with stars at night. Distant terrain fades into the sky color. Aircraft bank into turns and tilt as they climb or descend. They show red and green navigation lights on the wingtips, a white tail light and a flashing strobe, all brighter at night. Low aircraft and drones cast a soft shadow on the ground beneath them, which fades as they climb.

Aircraft cruising above about 8 km (26,000 ft) leave a short white contrail.

The ground is most detailed around the rig and simpler farther out, which keeps the view smooth. Hills and valleys are shaded by the sun. At night the map is backlit, so its detail stays visible after dark. Map and elevation tiles are saved in your browser, so a site you have viewed before opens quickly and still shows its terrain without an internet connection. (Your browser saves tiles only when the console is opened over a secure, https address.)

The street map comes from USGS Topo by default: public domain, detailed in the United States and coarse elsewhere. An admin can switch it under Admin → System, in topology/street_map: MapTiler or Stadia Maps with your own key from that provider (topology/street_map_key), your own tile server (topology/street_map_url, an https address with {z}, {x} and {y}, plus topology/street_map_attribution for its credit), or none. The same choice applies to the Cesium 3D view when it has no Cesium ion token. The map’s credit always shows at the bottom of the view.

On fast computers, Drone 3D also shows 3D buildings within about 2 km of the rig, from OpenStreetMap, standing on the terrain at their real heights. Navigation lights and strobes have a soft round halo, strongest at night.

Horizon panorama (Rig view). Rig view can show the real skyline around the rig, the trees, roofs and hills the DWARF 3’s wide lens sees, instead of map tiles at the horizon. An admin takes it once under Admin → Hardware → Dwarf → Horizon panorama: tick the telescope will turn and select Capture. The telescope turns across its travel (about 330°; the mount has a hard stop, so a slice behind it is left out), takes a photo every 30°, returns to where it was, and stitches them. It takes about a minute, and auto-track pauses meanwhile. The sky in the photo is made transparent, so Drone 3D’s own sky, sun and stars show above the skyline. Capture it in daylight under a clear or evenly overcast sky. The DWARF 3 can’t report how high its camera points, so the photo is placed with its centre 8° above the horizon; if its horizon doesn’t meet the 3D horizon, change centre row elevation on the same panel. The panorama shows only in Rig view, because a photo taken from the rig only lines up from the rig.

When a camera mount is connected, Drone 3D shows where its camera points. If the mount reports its elevation, you see the camera’s field of view as a pale blue cone from the rig. If it reports only its bearing (as the DWARF 3 does), you see a pale blue wedge on the ground in that direction instead, because the elevation isn’t known. The wedge is drawn on top of the terrain and stays visible in Rig view.

Extra controls:

Q: Auto picks a quality level for your device when the view opens. While you watch, Drone 3D also adjusts the picture sharpness by itself to keep the motion smooth, and on low-power devices it limits drawing to 30 frames a second. It stops drawing while the view is hidden, to save battery. In a VR headset it never goes above medium quality, so the headset keeps its full frame rate.

On a phone, + and − stay at the top right and the other controls are in the ⋯ View menu.

If the rig’s location has not been set, Drone 3D shows NO SITE LOCATION instead of a scene.

Flight card

Click an aircraft (or a drone, in Drone 3D) to open its flight card at the bottom right.

The card shows:

• The callsign (or ICAO code) as a link. It opens the flight on FlightAware, or on ADSBexchange when there is no callsign.
• A photo of the aircraft, with credit to the photographer, when one is available.
• ICAO, Altitude, Ground speed, Heading, Position, and SDR (which receiver heard it).
• Flight Plan, when available: Origin, Destination, Type, Reg, Operator, Sched off, ETA, and Status. Otherwise the card says No flight-plan data available.

The photo and flight plan come from online services, so they need an internet connection.

Select × to close the card.

FPV chase

In Drone 3D, the flight card has an FPV button. Select it to ride behind and above the contact as it flies. Drag to look around; the view eases back when you let go. Select FPV · … — exit at the top right to stop.

Game controllers

You can fly the Cesium 3D view with a game controller or joystick connected to your computer. Press any button with the DroneTracker tab open so the browser sees the controller.

From the video view, Select switches to the 3D view. The full button layout, including the video view, is on the Game controllers and joysticks page. To open it, select 🕹 PAD on the telescope controls when a controller is connected.

For the handheld, see Handheld.

Heading up and North up

Drone 3D and Astro 3D have two ways to face, like a car’s navigation map. The button beside the zoom controls (top right in Astro 3D) switches between them, and the view remembers your choice.

• ▲ Heading up (the default) turns the view to face where the camera points. On the station that is the telescope’s bearing: from a plate solve or a Lock Pos on a known aircraft when there is one, otherwise the Bearing entered for the device under Admin → Hardware → Dwarf. The telescope does not report where it points by itself, so with only an entered bearing the view faces that way and does not follow the telescope as it turns. On a phone it is the phone’s own compass, and the view follows as you turn the phone.
• N North up faces true north.

With no heading known, Heading up faces north, and the button shows (N). When you drag the view round yourself, the follow pauses and the button shows ↻; tap it to face the heading (or north) again. Zooming and panning do not pause it.

Astro 3D

Astro 3D shows the deep-sky targets as they stand in the sky from your site right now. It appears as a third choice, Astro 3D, on the switch at the bottom right of the 3D topology view, next to Cesium and Drone 3D.

You look around from the rig: drag to turn, scroll to zoom. The horizon, the compass points, altitude rings at 30° and 60°, the bright stars, the Moon and the Sun are drawn where they are. Each target above the horizon sits at its real altitude and azimuth, with a small model of its type (a dense ball for a globular cluster, a spiral for a galaxy, a glowing shell for a planetary nebula), colored by type. Zoomed out, only the brighter targets carry a name, and where two share one spot only one name is shown; zoom in and the rest are named, with their type and brightness. The slider at the bottom keeps only targets brighter than the magnitude you choose, and the type buttons hide or show each kind. Positions refresh every minute. A line at the top shows how many targets are up and whether it is dark yet. To go straight to a target, type its name in the find box (for example M31, Lagoon or Moon) and press Enter. On a phone, the type buttons fold away behind types.

Click a target’s name to open it full screen: a detailed model you can orbit and zoom, with its type, brightness, size and where it is now. The model is an impression of that type of object, shaped from its name, not a photograph of it. Tick Through the DWARF 3 to see the telescope’s telephoto frame (2.95° × 1.66°) drawn at the object’s true size, with the view framed the way the telescope would see it: a large nebula overflows the frame, a small planetary nebula is a dot inside it. Press Esc or close to return.

The real telescope. On the console, Through the DWARF 3 also turns the telescope to the object. It switches the telescope to Astro mode, points it, and makes its telephoto lens the main video picture. The live picture also appears in the corner of Astro 3D: tap it to swap the real view and the 3D render, and tap the small one to swap back. back to VIS returns the telescope to aerial detection. Astro mode stops the watch for aerial contacts, so if the rig is watching the sky it asks first (point it or cancel). It never takes a telescope that another app is using, never points within 30° of the Sun, and refuses objects below the horizon. The Moon works the same way. The telescope then follows the stars, so after a few hours the Moon drifts out of the frame; tick the box again to re-center it. A deep-sky object can look nearly black in the live picture until the sky is dark; the picture is the telescope’s live view, not a stacked image. The phones have no telescope, so there the box only frames the render.

The Moon. The Moon in the sky is the real one: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter maps, lit by the Sun from where it really is, so tonight’s phase, the shadows of craters and mountains along the terminator, and the faint earthshine on the dark side all show. Zoomed out it is drawn larger so you can find it; zoomed in it is its true size. Click it, or type Moon in the find box, to open it full screen: its phase, how much is lit, its age, distance and size, when it rises and sets, and the next full and new Moon. Drag to look round it. The phase slider runs it up to 15 days either way, and relief deepens the shading of the terrain. Through the DWARF 3 frames it in the telephoto field: the whole Moon fits, at about a sixth of the frame’s width. North is up, as you see it with the eye from the northern hemisphere.

On the phones. DroneTracker Mobile has Astro 3D on the 3D tab: switch between Drone 3D and Astro 3D at the top. It is always on there and needs no rig and no network: the phone works out the sky from its own position, with the same catalog the rig uses. On the handheld, ASTRO 3D in the side rail opens the rig’s Astro 3D.

By default the console offers Astro 3D only while the telescope is in Astro mode. An admin can change that under Admin → System, in topology/astro3d: astro_mode (the default), always, or off.

VIS / ASTRO switch. An admin can also put a VIS | ASTRO switch on the main screen’s top bar: turn on display/show_scope_mode_toggle under Admin → System (it is off by default). VIS is aerial detection, the rig watching the sky; ASTRO holds the telescope for deep-sky imaging and stops the watch for contacts. It does the same as the mode buttons on the Astro page.