✦ The Star Portrait — for a moment you both keep
The sky the night it all began.
The night you met. The evening one of you asked. The date on the wedding invitation. While it was happening, the sky above that place was holding a pattern it will never hold again — and nobody looked up. This is that sky, drawn star for star, with the planets where they actually stood and both your names beneath it.
Takes two minutes. You see the portrait before you pay.
Fig. I — drawn by the engine that will draw yours. 14 March 1994, 21:40, Lisbon.
Make yours
Enter the minute. Watch it drawn.
A date, a place, and a time if you have one. The portrait renders in front of you — the real one, not a preview of a preview. Decide how to keep it after you've seen it.
Bring that night back — free to seeStill unsure? Draw it first — the render is free and nothing is charged until you choose a tier.
How to keep it
A one-of-one portrait of the exact sky over one moment — real catalogue stars, the planets in gold, the aspect web drawn to the minute. Vector files, print-ready at A1, plus a permanent page.
The Star Portrait printed at A1 on archival 300gsm matte and shipped. Digital files included.
The Star Portrait printed at A1, framed in solid oak, and shipped ready to hang. Digital files included.
Every tier includes the files and the page. The composition and ink are yours to choose either way.
One of one
No one shares your sky.
Two people born in the same city an hour apart get visibly different sheets — the horizon moves, the Moon moves, the whole instrument turns. A star sign is one of twelve. This is one of one.
Below: two real portraits, six years and 2,000 kilometres apart. Nothing about them repeats.
See mine
Lisbon · 14 March 1994 · 21:40
Kaunas · 31 March 2000 · 01:20
What you're looking at
Every layer of it is a measurement.
This is not a poster of “the stars.” It is a portrait of one sky — the one that stood over the room you were born in. Six things are on the sheet, and all six are computed.
Real stars
Every naked-eye star that stood over the place at the minute — drawn from the Hipparcos satellite catalogue at true position and true brightness. About nine hundred candidates; the sky over you decides which appear.
The planets, measured
Each one placed in gold at its computed degree — the same class of ephemeris math observatories use — and engraved, degree and minute, around the ring of the instrument.
The geometry
The tightest angles between the planets, drawn as gold chords. This web is what makes the sheet unmistakably one moment's — move the minute and it redraws.
The horizon
Given an exact time, the degree rising in the east sits engraved at the left of the ring, the midheaven at the top — the instrument is set for the place, and everything else is measured against it.
The Moon, that night
Its phase, drawn as it hung there.
Sky Nº
Every sheet carries a serial number derived from the moment itself. Not an edition number — a coordinate. There is no second copy because there was no second minute.
How it works
Name the night
A date and a place; a time if you have one. That's everything we ask.
Watch it drawn
The portrait renders in front of you — the real one, not a preview of a preview. Choose the ink while you look at it.
Keep it forever
Files and the permanent page arrive the moment payment clears. The printed sheet follows within 5–7 working days, framed in oak if you chose it.
Materials & editions
Questions
What do we actually receive?
Print-ready files and a permanent private page holding that night, on every tier — plus, on the print tiers, the A1 sheet itself on archival 300gsm matte, framed in solid oak if you choose, shipped to your door. Dispatch takes 5–7 working days.
We don't know the exact time we met.
Nobody does — and for this sheet it barely matters. The stars and planets move little across an evening; only the rising degree on the horizon turns by the minute. Give us “around nine” and we draw that hour honestly. Skip the time entirely and you get the solar chart of the date, marked as such — we never fake precision.
Can both our names go on it?
Yes — the wordmark takes whatever you give it: “Ana & Tomas”, “The Night We Met”, a date you both defend. Keep it under 60 characters and it's set in type beneath the sky.
The wedding hasn't happened yet. Can we still order it?
Yes. The sky for any date can be computed — ephemerides run forwards as well as backwards. Ordering the wedding-night sky as the wedding gift is the kind of move people remember.
Is this different from those “night we met” star maps?
Very. Those print a generic dot field with your date as a caption. This is drawn from your moment: the planets at their measured degrees, the tightest angles between them in gold, the Moon's phase that night, and a Sky Nº derived from the minute itself. Same night, different city? Different sheet.
Anniversary rules: does this count as “paper”?
The first anniversary is paper; this is the sky on 300gsm of it. Year five is wood — the oak frame has that one covered too.
Still unsure? Draw it first — the render is free and nothing is charged until you choose a tier.
The sky kept the minutes.
Date, place, and the two of you.
Bring that night back — from $49Free to see · Free reprint if it disappoints · Files in minutes