Star Chart

Star Chart — the sky over you, drawn like a paper atlas in black on white. A planisphere for the Mudita Kompakt.

星図 seizu

The sky over you, drawn the way a paper star atlas draws it: black marks on white, for an E Ink phone you can take outside.

Built for the Mudita Kompakt, whose 4.3" panel has sixteen greys, a slow redraw, and is read outdoors as often as indoors.

Why it is not white-on-black Every other star chart on a screen draws white stars on a black field, because it is imitating the night. Here that would be the worst possible choice. A full screen of black is the slowest and most ghost-prone thing an E Ink panel can be asked to hold; it cannot be read in the daylight this phone is otherwise good in; and it drowns every mark that has to sit on top of it.

Printed star atlases have been black-on-white for four hundred years, and they are the ones people actually take outdoors and read by torchlight. That is the situation this is for.

What it shows Nine thousand stars from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue, sized by magnitude. On a screen with no brightness to spare, size carries the whole of that information. The constellation figures, and their names. Sun, Moon and the planets, drawn as rings so they are never mistaken for stars. The ecliptic, the celestial equator and a declination grid, each optional. Any moment, anywhere. Set the time and the place by hand — the useful question is usually what will be up at ten tonight from a campsite next week, not what is overhead indoors right now. Tap anything for its designation, magnitude, altitude and bearing.

What it does not do One permission, ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION, and only if you press "Ask the GPS". Typing a latitude and longitude works without granting anything, and is the only way to chart somewhere you are not.

No INTERNET permission. The catalogue ships inside the app and every position is computed on the phone.