Zenith uses 180x magnification and a 30-second field-of-view to make Earth’s rotation visible in real time via browser, fully client-side.
Key Takeaways
Field of view is defined as the sky patch that rotates across the screen in 30 seconds, roughly the size of a rice grain held at arm’s length.
All processing runs client-side in JavaScript; PanSTARRS images stream directly from STScI’s MAST archive, no server required.
Leaflet.js handles tiling and overlays; at this zoom level, spherical sky geometry is approximated as flat rectangles, same as Leaflet does for Earth maps.
Object names come from the SIMBAD database, queried live against the current field of view; SIMBAD crosshairs align to PanSTARRS pixels despite being independent sources.
Known unsolved problem: PanSTARRS oversaturates bright stars, producing green/color blobs that survive the noise filter; topology-based pixel detection is being explored.
