(C) BoingBoing
This story was originally published by BoingBoing and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Interactive maps of lighthouses [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2026-03-09  

Lighthouses of the Northern Seas is a beautiful map of glimmering coastlines at night, a cloudless world where everything but the lighthouses are turned off.

It shows 23,217 lights, separated into white, red, green and yellow, with their flash pattern (fixed, steady, quick, occulting) and options to show "major" lights only and the visibility ranges. The data is sourced from OpenStreetMap's seamark database. It's by Ethan Mollick, a professor at Wharton, though he vibe coded it, so it's for vibe consumption only.

Compare to World of Lighthouses, a less aesthetic but more informational interactive map which names each lighthouse and has lots of pop-up photos. For example, Shoreham Lighthouse, in Sussex, England, is presently Light #15747265419 in LotNS.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2026/03/09/interactive-maps-of-lighthouses.html

Published and (C) by BoingBoing
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/boingboing/