The star map of the night you were born
A birth date is the one coordinate everybody has and nobody chose. The sky above the hospital that night was a fact: a particular set of stars above the horizon, turned to a particular angle, and it has never stood exactly that way again. This draws it back.
Give the town and the hour and you get every star that was up — about six thousand of them from the HYG catalogue, at their real brightness and their real place, with north up and east on the left, the way you would have seen them looking up from the front steps.
The date decides which constellations are in the sky at all; the hour decides how far the whole thing has turned. Move the time by six hours and a quarter of the sky rolls away, so it is worth getting the hour roughly right even if the minute is lost.
Two ways to give it
Printable PDF $4.99
- A3 star chart, vector PDF
- Your place, moment and line of text
- Delivered by email in a minute
Gift edition $14.99
- Everything in the PDF
- A2 print file at 300 dpi (420 × 594 mm), ready for any print shop
- A personal dedication printed under the title
Printing it at home? There is a second paper: the same sky as ink on white. A full-bleed night A3 bands on a home printer and drinks a cartridge; the ink one does not. Same price, pick either on the next page.
Preview free, one-off payment by card, no account. The place, the moment and the line of text are yours to change on the next page; the example shown here is a real sky over Chicago on 11 March 1994, 21:00 local time.
The line of text
A name and the date read well on the line of text: “Anna — 11 March 1994”. It is printed small, under the chart.
Questions people ask
What if nobody remembers the exact time of birth?
Use 9 pm. It is the hour people picture when they say “that night”, and the chart stays honest: the stars are the ones that really rose that day, only turned to the evening angle instead of an unknown one. If you later find the time on the certificate, make another one — each is $4.99, and you keep the PDF.
Is the sky on my birthday really different from anyone else’s?
Yes, and checkably so. Six months away from your date the night sky faces the opposite side of the galaxy: the summer constellations are simply not up in winter. Two people born the same night in Chicago and in Melbourne also get different charts, because the horizon cuts the sphere in a different place.
What do I actually receive?
A print-ready A3 PDF (297 × 420 mm), vector, so it stays sharp at any size — any print shop or a home printer on A3 or A4. The download appears the moment the card goes through; there is nothing to ship and nothing to wait for.
Other occasions
- Anniversary star map — sky on the night it started, as an anniversary print
- Wedding star map — wedding star map of the night you said yes
- New baby star map — birth star map for the nursery wall
- Remembrance star map — remembrance star map for a date that mattered
- Engagement star map — sky over the proposal, as an engagement star map
- Graduation star map — graduation star map of the night it was done
- Valentine’s Day star map — Valentine’s Day star map that is actually about you two
- Christmas star map gift — star map Christmas gift that arrives the minute you buy it
- Mother's Day star map gift — Mother's Day star map of the night she became a mother
- Father's Day star map gift — Father's Day star map that shows the sky of your first night together
- The night we met star map — night we met star map: the sky over the place it started
- Last-minute star map gift — last-minute personal gift you can give tonight
Or just look: the real sky tonight over 500 cities →
