Stories, guides, and the science of the sky.
Everything you might want to know about star maps, the night sky, and turning a date that mattered into something you can hang on a wall.
Best Stargazing Apps 2026
An honest comparison of SkySafari, Stellarium Mobile, PhotoPills, Star Walk 2, Sky Tonight, Night Sky, and the free Google Sky Map — by use case.
My Birthday Star
Somewhere overhead is a star far enough away that its light has been travelling for exactly as long as you have. Look yours up, and go and see it.
NASA's Picture on Your Birthday
Enter your birth date and see the space photo NASA published that day, with the story behind it. Born before June 1995? There isn't one — so here's the real sky over your birthplace instead.
What N, S, E and W Mean in Coordinates
The four letters after a pair of coordinates tell you which half of the world a place is in. Here's how to read them, what the minus sign means, and the one slip that sends Denver to a desert in China.
How to Read Latitude and Longitude
Which number comes first, what all those decimals mean, how to read degrees and minutes, and how to say a pair of coordinates out loud without sounding like a submarine captain.
Why Flight Paths Look Curved
Planes aren't taking the scenic route. On a flat map the shortest path between two cities bends towards the pole, and a straight line would cost a London to LA flight almost 1,000 km.
How Long to Walk Across America
About 33 days if you never stop, three months at eight hours a day, and five or six months for the people who actually do it. Plus Texas, Britain, Australia, the world and the Moon.
Why Cities Are Built on Grids
Grids are easy to survey, easy to sell and easy to find your way around, which is why people have drawn them for 4,500 years. Here is the story, told through real street maps.
Christmas Gifts for Couples
For the couple who has everything, or the partner beside you: gifts built around their places and their nights. A map of where it began, the sky over the day it became official, and plenty of ideas that aren't ours.
First Anniversary Paper Gifts
The first anniversary is paper, and paper is far more romantic than it sounds. Letters, maps, skies, tickets and books: ideas for him, for her, and for every budget.
What to Write on a Map Gift
The map shows the place. The words say why it matters. Short lines for where you met, first homes, weddings, hometowns, travels and long distance, plus how to use the coordinates.
Where We Met Map Gift
The café, the campus, the bus stop. How to turn the place you met into a map gift: finding the exact spot, choosing the framing, the words, and pairing it with the sky from that night.
We’re writing through a long list of guides — how star maps work, gift ideas, the night sky on any date in history, and a year-round calendar of meteor showers and eclipses. New posts go up here as they’re finished.