It's too easy to get scammed on the internet so it's wise of you to be cautious. You maybe saw an ad or perhaps came across our social media and wondering whether we are "for real", we wrote this article to clear all your doubts.
Are your star maps accurate?
...or just random dots and lines on a piece of paper? How would you even know? After all not everyone is a hobby astronomer.
When it comes to our star maps, accuracy is very important for us but we did not want you to just take our word for it. We wanted a third-party with real authority in the field of astronomy to check our maps. So we worked with Dr Tom Barclay PhD, a respected astrophysicist who did a thorough review of our astronomical algorithms and did many spot-checks including strange edge cases to see if his predicitions match ours. They did.
You can read more about his audit here and you can see the full assessment here.
By the way Tom is very cool, his main research area is looking for Earth-like planets in other solar systems. Check his website here.
Did we mention we also made a video with Neil deGrasse Tyson, probably the biggest celebrity scientist in the world?
Do people really like these?
You might have seen a video of ours when someone unwraps a star map and cries happy tears. We love those videos because they show the real reaction of our real customers.
But what's the big deal? It's just a piece of paper. Or is it?
The way we think about it (and we think our customers do too) is that our star maps are not just objects, they represent something important to you. Have you ever gotten a greeting card from someone that made you smile? Was it the paper or what was printed on it? Or was it the handwritten note and all the memories it brought back with that person? Or have you ever found an old photo that made you feel nostalgic? You get the point.
Giving someone a star map of when you first met or when you got engaged is simply a cool way to commemorate a special event. The real value isn't in the paper (although it's premium quality) but that important moment the stars represent.
Even if you don't believe in spiritual things consider this. Isn't it cool that those exact stars in the sky literally watched you, stumbling around on this tiny blue ball, being very very happy in that moment for reasons they would never understand?
We think it's cool.
If you are still not convinced, feel free to read our reviews anywhere — you'll find thousands. We won't link it here because we don't want to direct you, just google "under lucky stars reviews" and find them on TrustPilot, Facebook or any other review site you trust.
Are all star maps the same?
If you look at our Instagram you'll see many happy star map owners and their maps. For an untrained eye some of these might look similar — the Milky Way shows up at a similar angle and you might be able to put some of the same constellations too.
If you are an astronomer, you are not surprised. It's because after all, we all look up to the same, fairly constant night sky. It's only our vantage point that changes.
You can visualize it like this. The Earth is a tiny ball inside a much-much bigger ball (our celestial sphere), rotating around itself and the Sun. The inside of the big ball is painted with stars, constellations, the Milky Way, and other celestial objects, but it doesn't move. You move, sitting on the smaller ball (Earth) and so your vantage point keeps changing hour by hour, day by day. That's what we capture in our star maps. They show the stars from that special place and time (your vantage point) that is so important to you.
To answer the question: all star maps are demonstrably different. Some more than others. For example, the Southern Hemisphere will show completely different constellations than the Northern. There's a big difference between seasons and time-of-the-day too. While looking at the sky from Philadelphia and New York city at the exact same day and hour you will see a very similar sky - although slightly different.
With our astronomical algorithms we can capture the differences (big and tiny) in those vantage points and get you a star map that shows the very exact position of all constellations in a moment important for you. It's unique and personal to you.
Comparing two star maps with similar vantage points, highlighting the unique differences
Are you a copycat of X?
You might have come across similar companies to us. Some are great, some are kinda sketchy or they make a poor quality product.
You might be wondering if we are just a copy of any of them.
We can offer you a very simple method to decide who's the original:
- take any competitor
- go to their instagram
- scroll all the way down to the first post and check its date
- now do the same for us and compare the dates
We'd be surprised if you found anyone before November 2016, which is when we started our business and poioneered customized star maps.
We really hope this cleared things up, but if you have any other questions our colleagues are available to respond 24/7 at support@underluckystars.com
If you are convinced, you can design your own star map here.