Beautiful Public Data
beautifulpublicdata.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2022
Beautiful Public Data publishes visual explorations of government datasets, such as FAA maps, ship tracking, license plates, and NASA archives.
What HN saysOne commenter lists it as one of their best finds among blogs; HN otherwise links it for its maps and data visualizations.
21HN people shared it
3linked it in comments
44stories submitted
477story points
3 months agolast shared
2022people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1FAA Aviation Maps4 people · 96 points · first shared 2024 · 54 comments on HN
- 2Visualizing Ship Movements with AIS Data3 people · 102 points · first shared 2024 · 17 comments on HN
- 3All of the vehicle license plates available in America3 people · 9 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 4NASA Ames Research Center Archives3 people · 7 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
- 5All the Rocks We Hauled Back from the Moon3 people · 4 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 6The Mirror Fusion Test Facility (2023)2 people · 122 points · first shared 2023 · 77 comments on HN
- 7The Naughty Words the FAA Removed from the Sky2 people · 68 points · first shared 2024 · 45 comments on HN
- 8Highway Photologs2 people · 4 points · first shared 2022 · 1 comments on HN
- 9Weird Government Comic Books2 people · 3 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 10Mapping Volcano Eruptions with Drones2 people · 3 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 11Beautiful Public Data: A curated selection of visually interesting datasets2 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 12The United States Frequency Allocation Chart1 people · 18 points · first shared 2023 · 3 comments on HN
- 13Lidar measures the toll of climate disasters1 people · 6 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 14The USGS Cooperative National Geologic Map1 people · 5 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 1550k Boat Names1 people · 3 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
VerifiedJoseph · 2023-09-28
Depending on your interests there are a lot of blogs out there.
Beautiful Public Data (https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/) is one of my best finds.
Others I read via RSS include:
Wladimir Palant's blog 'Almost Secure' https://palant.info/articles/
Ctrl.blog https://www.ctrl.blog/
Troy Hunt's blog https://www.troyhunt.com/
Molly White's newsletter https://newsletter.mollywhite.net
CapricornNoble · 2025-09-10
> I assume if you really want this data for military purposes
Typically we are using NGA 1m DTED for the terrain elevation data but I don't recall off the top of my head who usually supplies the imagery layers. We'll pull multiple map types from a WMS Server, including raster maps like FAA VFR mapsheets for our Area of Operations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTED
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Map_Service
https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/faa-aviation-maps/
lapcat · 2023-08-21
Well, Maryland is clearly just out of control with the plates: https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/content/images/size/w1600/2023/08/…
By the way, the majority of out-of-staters at UW are from neighboring Minnesota (with tuition reciprocity) and Illinois (the FIBs).