New · landscape poster
Star Map with Moon Phase: your sky, and the Moon that night
The night sky over your place and the Moon exactly as it was that night, side by side on one landscape poster: NASA’s imagery of the real lunar surface, lit for that night’s phase, with how much of its face was lit and your words below.
$139.99
Framed, 24 × 18 in, Black frame · free shipping
Size (landscape)
- See the real sky and Moon before you pay
- Digital file in minutes · prints on 260 g/m² luster photo paper
- Free Shipping on every print
In short: A star map with moon phase from Gift The Stars is a print of the real night sky over a chosen place at a chosen date and time, computed from the Hipparcos star catalogue, with your names and a message underneath. A star map with moon phase pairs the night sky of a date and place with the Moon as it looked then. Ours computes the phase from the Moon’s true angle to the Sun at that instant and prints how much of its face was lit; digital $19.99, framed from $79.99.
The digital file is $19.99 and arrives by email in minutes. Posters start at $39.99 and framed prints at $79.99, in 11×14, 12×16, 18×24 or 24×36 inches, with free shipping to 35 countries; prints are made in 2 to 5 business days. The preview is free and needs no account.
How it works
Step 1
Choose the night
The place, date and time: a birth, a first date, a wedding, the night someone was lost.
Step 2
We compute both
The stars over that place, and the Moon’s phase for that exact instant, with the share of its face that was lit.
Step 3
Make it yours
Your title under both, an optional line over the sky, any style. Preview free, then digital, print or framed.
Nights people choose
The night you were born
Your birth sky and the Moon that watched over it: a waxing crescent, a full Moon, or a new Moon you could not see.
The night you met
The sky of a first date with its Moon, for an anniversary or Valentine’s Day.
A wedding night
The sky and Moon over the venue at the hour of the first dance.
In memory
The night someone was born, or the night they passed, kept as it was in the sky.
How it is computed
The Moon, computed, not picked
By Mayukh Bagchi, founder & phd candidate in astronomy
The phase comes from the Moon’s elongation, its angle from the Sun as seen from Earth, at the exact instant you enter, read in the place’s own time zone. From that angle we draw the curve of the terminator and print the illuminated fraction, so a 3-day crescent is drawn as a thin crescent and labelled about 10 % lit, not rounded to the nearest of eight stock phases.
The phase is the same everywhere on Earth at a given instant, but the Moon looks turned around from the southern hemisphere, where a waxing Moon is lit on the left. For places south of the equator we turn the Moon to match what you would have seen.
The Moon itself is real: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mosaic of the near side, with the orbiter’s laser-measured terrain, so the craters along the terminator catch the light the way they did that night. If the Moon was below the horizon at that hour, it still had that phase, and the poster shows it. Lunar imagery: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.
Sizes and prices
The same prices as every star map. It prints landscape: the width is the longer side.
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Free reprint if damaged
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PhD Verified
Astronomically accurate
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Questions
Star Map with Moon Phase: questions
- How accurate is the moon phase?
- It is computed from the Moon’s true angle to the Sun at the exact instant and place you enter, not chosen from a set of stock phases. The Moon is NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imagery of the real surface, lit from that angle, and the poster prints the phase name and the percentage of the face that was lit.
- What if the Moon was not visible that night?
- The phase does not depend on whether the Moon was up. If it was below the horizon or it was a new Moon, the poster still shows the Moon as it was that night: a new Moon is drawn as a dark disc with a faint outline.
- Why does the Moon look different for the southern hemisphere?
- Seen from south of the equator the Moon appears rotated, so a waxing Moon is lit on the left instead of the right. We turn it for southern places so it matches what was actually seen.
- How much does it cost?
- The same as any star map: digital $19.99, prints from $39.99 and framed from $79.99, with free shipping on prints.
- Which sizes does it come in?
- Landscape 14 × 11, 16 × 12, 24 × 18 and 36 × 24 inches, unframed or in a black, white or natural wood frame. The digital file is 7200 × 5400 pixels.
- Is this the moon phase on the day I was born?
- Yes: enter your birth date, place and, if you know it, the time. The phase changes slowly, so a few hours either way rarely changes its name, and the lit percentage moves by only a few points.
Also new
The other landscape layout, at the same prices.
Also: the classic custom star map, a framed star map, the digital download, the birth poster and all star map gifts.