✦ The Star Portrait — as a gift
Give them the night they arrived.
Most gifts say I saw this and thought of you. This one says I thought about the night you began. The sky over the place they were born — every visible star at its true position, their planets in gold, the degree that was rising when they took their first breath. It cannot be regifted, because it cannot belong to anyone else.
You see the finished portrait before you pay. Ships framed, if you like.
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.
Make their portrait — 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
Give their minute
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 they actually receive?
A framed or unframed A1 print if you choose a print tier — and, with every tier, the digital files plus a permanent private page holding their sky exactly as it stood that night. You can hand over the frame and let the page be the surprise inside the surprise.
I know their birthday but not their birth time.
That's enough. Date and place give the honest version — their stars and planets for that night, marked “solar chart” on the sheet, with no horizon invented. If you can find the minute (parents remember; birth certificates record it), the sheet gains its rising degree and the full instrument.
I don't know their birth details at all.
Then give them the reading as a gift certificate instead — it's ready in one minute, no details needed, and they enter their own birth moment when they open it. The Star Portrait needs a real date and place, because it refuses to draw a sky that isn't theirs.
Can it ship straight to them?
Yes — at checkout, put their address in the shipping step and yours on the receipt. The price appears nowhere on or in the sheet. Dispatch takes 5–7 working days; the digital page is ready the moment payment clears, so the gift is never late even when the post is.
Is this one of those star maps?
It's what the star maps are gesturing at. A star map prints a dot field anyone born in their city that night could hang. This is drawn from their minute: their planets at measured degrees, the angles between them in gold, the ascendant engraved on the horizon — with a Sky Nº derived from the moment itself.
Will it survive shipping? What if it arrives damaged?
The print travels protected and the frame ships ready to hang. If anything arrives less than perfect, we reprint and reship it free — one photo is all we ask.
Still unsure? Draw it first — the render is free and nothing is charged until you choose a tier.
You already know their date.
That's most of the gift. Two minutes to see their sky.
Make their portrait — from $49Free to see · Free reprint if it disappoints · Files in minutes