Are our star maps accurate?

Sometimes we get questions about the accuracy of our star charts. After all, it's hard for laymen to verify if the constellations of a custom-made star map really represent the sky above you in the moment you selected.

We have also seen fake or inauthentic star map knock-offs popping up after we launched our product back in 2016.

The simplest way to check the accuracy is designing a map using your current location and time, then compare the real-time preview on our website with the sky above you. Of course this is not always practical because it has to be dark outsides and even during the night, light pollution in most cities makes it hard to see more than half a dozen stars.

So, we thought we'd remove any doubt and hired a professional astronomer to audit our maps.

Dr Tom Barclay is a PhD in Astrophysics and he's currently working for NASA as a research scientist in their TESS mission, looking for Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars. He's really cool. We asked Tom to audit our star maps and verify that they are accurate, given a place and date selected.

Tom carefully compared our star maps to results independently calculated by him and performed a code review on our star charging algorithms, to verify that you are always getting an accurate star map for the most important moments of your life. This helps you avoid fake or inauthentic products.

You can read his full assessment here ❐. The short version: they are accurate, making Under Lucky Stars the only independently verified star map maker.