[Watch Face] Constellations

This watch face actually displays the a real live astronomically current constellation star chart for your date, time and location. It is valid for anywhere in Canada, USA and Europe. The star chart rotates and adjusts depending upon the month, and the hour of the day. If requested, and I can find appropriate charts, I can probably do other locations as well.

The oval at the bottom displays your current field of view when you line up the direction you are facing with the S/E/W directions at the bottom. In the most natural position of the watch, it displays the view to the South (the big S at the bottom), so you should face south. All you need to do is line up the yellow horizon line up at the bottom. It adjust dynamically depending upon the tilt of the watch. If you face west, tilt your watch down and to the right to display the night sky with the W at the bottom. If you face East, tilt your watch down and to the left to display the night sky with the E at the bottom. Yes, you may need some (very) strong reading glasses to read the constellation names - I sure do! It is the price one pays for displaying an entire freaking night time sky on your watch! :grin:

No night sky viewing experience is complete without knowing the forecast so you will know when it will be clear - so a 4 day forecast is provided at the top below the time, complete with conditions and daily highs/lows. Current condition is on the left. Current moon phase is on the right.

Sunrise and sunset times are dynamically shown on the right and left of the screen, beside little triangles. They are accurately shown relative to an imaginary 24 hour wheel on the display, with 0 and 24 hours at the top, 12 hours at the bottom. The star chart works best at night obviously, between 6pm and 6am.

Finally the permission to use this star chart is from:
"Kepler Star Wheels reproduced with permission from NASA Kepler Mission and University of California, Lawrence Hall of Science.

3 Likes

very cool!

Thanks @ThaMattie!

A Facer user challenged me to add the moonrise to the watch face. The moonrise time is now added in green above the moon.

It is based on a rule of thumb I found online that says that the full moon rises at sunset and falls at sunrise. The moonrise then shifts ~ 50 minutes later each day for the age of the moon. A quick check with an online calculator indicates that it is only about 6 minutes out, so it’s pretty close. Still working on the moonset. Hmmm, maybe I can show the moon arcing across the sky in front of the chart?

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Looks Awesome, Just a bit too busy for me. But I would give it a try!

That would be cool. I have a work in progress with the sun arcing across the sky and have moon on my todo list as well, but hadn’t looked into the moonrise/set yet so thanks for that rule of thumb.