Star Maps

The real sky, computed backward

You enter a location, a date, and a time - a birthday, a wedding night, the evening you first met - and our rendering engine works backward through the math of celestial mechanics. Using the HYG star catalog (derived from the Hipparcos mission, the European Space Agency's star-mapping satellite) and all 88 internationally recognized constellations from the International Astronomical Union, the engine computes each star's position in the sky as it would have appeared from your exact coordinates at your exact moment.

The dome of the sky, flattened

The result is projected onto a circular star chart using a stereographic projection - the same mathematical technique astronomers have used for centuries to flatten the dome of the sky onto a flat surface while preserving the shapes of the constellations. Brighter stars appear larger, dimmer stars fade to tiny points, and the relative positions are true to what you would have seen if you'd looked up that night.

Your sky, your way

You can toggle constellation lines on or off, show or hide constellation names, adjust how many background stars are visible, and control the glow intensity that gives the brightest stars their soft halo. Color presets range from deep navy backgrounds with white stars (the classic observatory look) to inverted light-on-dark designs, and you can set custom colors for the background, stars, and text independently.

Like all MapWorks products, the final output is a print-ready poster with your custom title, subtitle, location coordinates, and a personal tagline - exported as SVG, PDF, or high-resolution raster at up to 600 DPI. Every element is rendered as crisp vector geometry, so the star field scales cleanly from a phone screen to a framed 24×36″ print.