The stars the night you were born
The sky over the town you were born in, at the minute you arrived: the stars, the Moon at its phase and the planets, for any birthday since 1900. A gift for a newborn's room, a 30th or an 80th.
All five print sizes, as PDFs a few minutes after you pay.
Any day from 1900 to 2100 230,000 towns and cities
The time of birth
The minute decides which stars stood overhead. A long-form birth certificate often records it, and so do hospital bracelets, baby books and the first message sent to the family. Without one, leave the time empty and the map shows the evening of that day.
Born in daylight? The stars were above all the same. The Star chart design charts them as if it were night; The sky as you saw it, in its True sky colour, paints the sky as it looked, blue, with only the Moon or a bright planet showing.
Not the star sign
The constellations on it are the ones in your sky that night, not your star sign's. Around your birthday the Sun stands in your sign's part of the sky, so those stars are up in the daytime, hidden by its light. The map shows what was there to see.
The words under it
It starts from “The night you were born”, which you can keep or replace: a name, then two short lines. The date, the time and the town are printed under the sky for you, so the lines can be a weight and length, a wish, or the age they're turning.
How it works
- Make it herePick the day, the place, a design and your words. The preview is drawn by the same code that makes your files: only the word "Preview" comes off.
- Pay onceBy card or Link through Stripe, tax included, with no account. Your day, place and words are deleted once the files are made.
- Print it and frame itFive PDFs a few minutes later, on a page whose link works for 30 days. A typo or the wrong day? Remake it free, once, within 30 days.
Five sizes in every purchase
Each a print-ready PDF. Print Letter or A4 at home on heavy matte paper, take 8 × 10 or 11 × 14 to any photo counter, and the 18 × 24 in poster to a print shop.
Each fits a ready-made frame of its size. To hang it with a white mat, buy a frame a size up with a mat cut for yours: an 11 × 14 frame matted for 8 × 10, or 16 × 20 matted for 11 × 14.
- 18 × 24 in 46 × 61 cm Print shop
- 11 × 14 in 28 × 36 cm Photo counter
- Letter 21.6 × 27.9 cm Home printer
- A4 21 × 29.7 cm Home printer
- 8 × 10 in 20 × 25 cm Photo counter
Three designs, each in four colours
Shown on Letter, for February 14, 2027 over New York City
Star chart
An engraved celestial atlas: the stars above your town inside a brass ring marked in degrees, the Milky Way, the constellations by name, and the Moon in a medallion at its phase.
The Moon
The Moon alone, as a gallery photograph: NASA's Moon lit to the phase it showed and turned the way it hung in your sky, with a museum label of its facts below.
The sky as you saw it
Standing under it: the sky coloured by the Sun's height at that minute, as many stars as could be seen, the Moon and planets where they stood, and the horizon with its compass.
Drawn from the sky as it was
Nothing on it is made up. The stars come from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue and stand where they stood at your minute, seen from your town. The Milky Way and the Moon are NASA's: the Moon lit to its phase, turned as it hung in your sky, with the faint earthshine on its dark side. The planets are placed by Astronomy Engine, which agrees with the US Naval Observatory to within a minute.
Times are your place's own clock on that day, daylight saving and historical changes included, and a town south of the equator gets its own southern sky. The preview above is drawn by the same code that makes your files: only the word "Preview" comes off.
Questions
Can I make one for a baby who isn't born yet?
Make it once they've arrived and you know the minute. It's ready a few minutes after you pay, so there's no need to order ahead.
Just the Moon they were born under?
The moon print shows the Moon on that day at its exact phase, alone or with its whole month around it.
How soon do I get it?
A few minutes after you pay. You land on your files' page, which ticks off each size as it's drawn and then lists them to download. Keep its link: it works for 30 days, and if you lose it, email hello@printdates.com from the address on your receipt.
Can I give it as a gift?
Yes. The files are yours to print and give, and there's no shipping, so it works the night before as well as a month ahead.
What if something's wrong?
A typo or the wrong day: remake it free, once, within 30 days, from your files' page. A file that's wrong or won't open is fixed or refunded within 60 days. A change of mind isn't refunded once the files are made (terms).
Does it work for anywhere?
Any of 230,000 towns and cities, north or south of the equator, on any day from 1900 to 2100. If yours isn't on the list, pick the nearest one: across 50 km the sky shifts by a few minutes.