Astra Creative

Two views of the real sky — and an account of how much of it is actually known.

Everything here is computed or sourced. Star positions come from the HYG catalogue and precess properly over the whole range of the clock; the planets and our Moon come from an ephemeris; the surface maps are spacecraft photographs from NASA and USGS.

Where something is not known, it says so. A moon whose orbit was fitted rather than computed tells you how far out it can be. A hemisphere no spacecraft has photographed is left flat rather than painted in, and named. A sky culture's names that nobody has checked with a speaker are marked unchecked. An empty sky always explains which of the five possible reasons it is empty for.