This year, there is one more Chinese star in the night sky.
It looks like this —
(China space station transit beijing Fangshan Wang Junfeng / photo)
And like this:
(Anjiu/Photo)
That's right, the Chinese space station.
It is 400 kilometers away from the Earth and has a volume of 110 cubic meters.
The long wings crossed the sky over the motherland and looked up, which was the brightest "Chinese star".
The liftoff of the Chinese space station also makes China the third country to send the space station into the sky on its own.
Chinese space station swims through space (Source: Beijing Daily)
In fact, every once in a while, the figure of the Chinese space station will skim over China.
Recently, the use of the naked eye or mobile phones can directly record the style of the Chinese space station, and it has also attracted a group of "star-chasing" people.
However, it is not easy to see it.
Short occurrence times, urban light effects, uncertainty about the specific observation location...
This gives a difficult question: how to catch up with this "Chinese star"?
"To make it more visible"
"I hope that one day, we can see the forecast of the transit of our Chinese space station."
After the launch of the Chinese space station, astronomy enthusiast Lao A received a message in the background.
Old A operates a WeChat mini program for users to query weather and astronomical forecasts.
This question evokes the memories of old A.
In the past, he and his friends, who loved astronomy, observed the space station, and generally had one object: the International Space Station, which was operated by NASA and others.
Old A was observing the starry sky
Old A has witnessed the spectacle of the Leo meteor shower and clocked in for a comet at 2 a.m. at the top of the mountain.
At that moment, he was shocked by the brilliance of the starry sky.
"We've chased the International Space Station, and we have a lot more love for our own space station."
This made him determined to share what he saw with more people.
"To let more people see this Chinese star" has become the goal of this young man.
Chasing Chinese stars is an arithmetic problem
There are many meanings behind the Chinese space station: the blue wisp of China's space history, the dream relay of generations of astronauts...
This also makes the Chinese space station not just a "star", but a "Chinese unique romance".
However, the space station often appears for only 3 to 6 minutes.
At the same time, observations should also take into account weather and daylight factors.
In April this year, the Chinese space station Tianhe core module was launched, and with the successive arrival of astronauts, the Chinese space station opened the era of long-term presence.
Here is a supplement to the observation principle of the space station:
Under the premise that the transit data of the space station is known, combined with its own longitude and latitude data, the observation time and observation angle are calculated.
At the same time, since the coordinate system is not the same at home and abroad, when obtaining data through overseas observation applications, it is necessary to convert again.
1 million people, since then the mobile phone to chase the stars
To make ordinary people understand, it is necessary to make the operation simple and the information clear.
"The most important thing is to make the calculation of the data more accurate, the information obtained is based on geographical location, and on the other hand, the data is visualized."
All this must be done in a small program.
Fortunately, mini programs have long been open to API interfaces including location services for individual developers.
These capabilities are based on the support provided by Tencent's location services, including positioning capabilities and address inverse resolution capabilities, which can quickly measure the distance and angle between the orientation of the space station and the actual location of the user, and the latter can resolve latitude and longitude into addresses.
Let's take an analogy.
Reverse address analysis can transform latitude and longitude into well-known landmark information, such as 116.4 degrees east longitude and 39.92 degrees north latitude to the Forbidden City; 121.5 degrees east longitude and 31.24 degrees north latitude to the Oriental Pearl Tower.
In addition, based on positioning, it can also extend the query ability of weather, light pollution, etc.
For old A, if the functions and algorithms of Astro-Tong are engines, then Tencent's location service is like gasoline.
Out of his hobby of running the old A of astronomy, he began to pick up functions and nibble code.
After doing a good job, Old A will launch the space station transit forecast function, which includes the date, brightness, duration, and visible height of the space station at the time of transit.
When doing the astronomy, the idea of Old A was to make it reach at least 100,000 people.
"Let everyone become an astronomical expert."
And the number of users rose even faster than old A expected, more than 100,000, 500,000, 1 million...
Chasing stars is more convenient
"That's our Chinese space station!"
In a video taken in July this year, photographer Wang Junfeng was excited.
In the video, the space station streaks across Beijing's night sky.
Wang Junfeng, who loves astronomy, has been planning to shoot this "Chinese star" after the core module of the space station was lifted off.
In order to find the right place to shoot, his footprints once spread all over Beijing: Tiananmen, the Forbidden City, the Corner Tower, the Great Wall...
Once, he stayed up late in the suburbs to step on the spot, full of hairy grass, "and also rooted in the thorns."
But it's all worth it.
"This is the symbol of China as we grow up, it's too good."
Now, he can point into the transit forecast of the Chinese space station built into the Astronomical Pass.
Find the right angle for observation through the device orientation function provided by the location service;
Then through the parsed animation, intuitively correspond to your own location information.
In addition, through the built-in ability of the Mini Program, the Astronomical Pass can also predict the stars.
Astrophotographer Dai Jianfeng positioned the advantages of astronomy as "easy to operate".
As a veteran star chaser who has been chasing stars for 6 years, Dai Jianfeng spends one-third of his time a year on the move.
Behind each photo, in addition to the struggle with fatigue and danger, there is also an astronomical pass, "A little bit of opening can understand where you are now." ”
Wang Junfeng is also launching a campaign to punch in The Chinese Space Station across the country to expand the scale of this star-chasing activity.
(China space station transit shanghai Lujiazui Dai Jianfeng / photo)
(China Space Station Transit Bird's Nest Zhao Wei/Photo)
(Zheng Zhi/ Photo by Zheng Zhi, corner tower of the Forbidden City, transiting the Chinese space station)
More and more ordinary people began to join the exchange group of Astronomical Pass.
The story continues
Liu Shu, product manager of Tencent Location Services, is not the first time to deal with developers, but when he came into contact with Old A, he still felt that this was a "romantic and rigorous person".
Helping small and medium-sized developers is also the beginning of the intersection of Liu Shu and this group of "star chasers".
He hadn't seen the stars at 3 or 4 a.m., but he had exploded his liver in the middle of the night.
At that time, due to the surge in traffic of the transit forecasting function of the Chinese space station, Liu Shu's location service team urgently pulled through, providing a guarantee for the normal access of Tiantong.
"I may not have had much time to look up at the stars before, but this time, I saw 'stars' that we made ourselves."
Under the night sky, Liu Shu saw the Chinese space station passing through the astronomical pass, and the biggest feeling in his heart was "pride".
"Old A is actually helping us improve some of the ideas and plans on our products, so that our products become more plump."
These capabilities can be applied to more developers and products in the future.
In the Astronomical Pass, the competition that is called "homework" by astronomical enthusiasts is giving birth to more and more "excellent homework".
In the fan base, 8-year-old and 9-year-old fans handed in the "homework"
Let more people see and chase the "stars", Liu Shu feels, is also the meaning of their efforts.
*We will also start a live broadcast event of "Chasing The Star Together, the Brightest Chinese Star" on December 20th.
Come, use the baptism of this Chinese star to draw a satisfactory end to this year.