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We’re Building Our Own Star Catalog

If you have visited our store page lately, you may have seen a banner stating that our charts would be available from November 2026. We have pushed that back a little. Our store will open in early 2027, and the reason that is so, is one we are proud of. We are building GoRhyme’s own star catalog from the bottom up. We believe this honors the spirit of our website, which is enjoying and understanding the rhythm of the world around us.

What a star catalog is

But first, what is a star catalog? A star catalog is a dataset that mathematically describes where each star in the sky is and how bright it is. Most star maps are drawn from large catalogs downloaded online. They work, but the maker has little say over where the data came from, or, at a time when data can vanish, whether it will still be there next year.

Why we are making our own

While we were reviewing the sources in our almost-ready-to-launch charts, we decided that not owning the data set made for an unstable product basis.

So, we have gathered printed star catalogs, the reference books astronomers built over decades of careful observation, including the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog of 1966, the Boss General Catalogue of 33,342 stars, the Smithsonian’s companion Star Atlas of Reference Stars, and a 1930 first edition of the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars. Each was made independently and is in the public domain, so they can be used to check one another. From these, we are compiling GoRhyme’s own catalog of the roughly 9,000 stars you can see with the naked eye.

Websites and governments change, and data disappear all the time; digital copies of books do too. Books on the shelf do not; you can hold them, look at them and refer and backup your data. 

What this means for your chart

  • Every star can be verified by hand.
  • The data underneath is getting stronger and can be updated as measurements improve; astronomers continually refining star information as new observations come in.
  • The underlying engine method has been reviewed by an outside expert in physics and astronomy.

Skies from around the world

The same careful star data will sit beneath every chart in the collection. The store will open with these traditions:

  • Western, the familiar constellations, in both a modern and an antique style.
  • A Spanish-language edition of the Western chart.
  • Vedic, the sky of the Indian lunar mansions.
  • Arabic, with star names written in Arabic script.
  • Babylonian, from the earliest recorded star lore.
  • Egyptian, the sky of the ancient Nile.
  • Chinese, inspired by antique star maps.

What is coming next

We are building the star catalog now. Once it is complete and tested, the store opens with the full collection in four print sizes: 8 x 10, 11 x 14, 12 x 12, and 12 x 16, plus a digital download. We will also share a behind-the-scenes look at how the catalog was built, so you can see exactly where your stars come from.

Want to know the day the store opens? Join GoRhyme email list to receive notifications. It is found at the bottom of the linked page.

Thank you for your patience.