Show HN: Algorithmically Finding the Longest Line of Sight on Earth

Re:Show HN: Algorithmically Finding the Longest Line of Sigh... by hdersch on Monday February 09, 2026 @11:50AM (#46947517)

"Viewsheds" of any location can be calculated and matched with photographs using "GeoImageViewer", an application I wrote a couple of years ago. Any feature in the photo can be interactively identified in a mapview and vice versa, including the boundary of the viewshed. See the link below for a couple of examples.

I wonder how atmospheric refraction is handled in the calculations for the longest line of sight. Since it (a) strongly affects the line of sight, and (b) depends on temperature and weather, how is a static "world record" possible, or even defined? E.g. objects may appear 400m higher in 200km distance under typical conditions.

https://hdersch.github.io/Viewing.html

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: Algorithmically Finding the Longest Line of Sigh... by tombh on Monday February 09, 2026 @11:59AM (#46947648)

Oh hey, I remember you from the last time I posted something about our project. That's a great app you have.

We actually have a plan to aggregate world runs together, so that one run as low refraction and a short observer, then another run with high refraction and tall observer. Then instead of rendering longest lines of sight as those singl triangles, we could render them as 2 triangles that represents the extremes of expected visibility.

[ Parent | on HN ]