Noir Star Map

Inside the circle are around 9,000 stars from the HYG catalog, down to magnitude 6.5, and all 88 constellations with their official line figures, computed for your coordinates and your minute, for any date between 1900 and 2100. With nothing else on the page, the structure of the sky itself becomes the design: the bright stars, the familiar figures, the empty stretches between them.

Noir is also the design on which the constellation lines are easiest to read, because the grey sits exactly between the black ground and the white stars. Switch the lines off and the map becomes a pure field of stars.

• Memorials. Restraint is the point. A name, a date, and the sky above a place that was theirs, with nothing to distract from it.
• Father's Day. For a study, a workshop or a den, where a monochrome piece sits beside tools, books and dark wood.
• The night you met, for couples whose home is modern and spare.
• Any gift for someone who dislikes decoration. Noir is the star map for people who would never buy a star map.

If you want the same restraint on a pale ground, Paper and Black Disc are the light-room equivalents.

The ground is a very dark grey rather than absolute black, which keeps detail in the print and stops it from looking like a hole in the wall. Stars are white with a faint tint from their colour index; the brightest are drawn a little larger, without a glow. Constellation lines are a neutral mid grey. Title and details are set in off-white.

Because Noir has no colour to shift, it prints faithfully anywhere. Our framed print on semi-gloss paper in a black wood frame is the most seamless combination in the range: frame, mat and poster read as one dark object. At home, use a matte photo paper and the photo setting; plain paper turns the ground grey and uneven.

On the wall it suits everything from white plaster to concrete. It is the best design for a gallery wall of mixed pieces, because it adds no colour of its own.

• Always with us / the night you were born
• In loving memory / Margaret, 1941 to 2025
• The night we met / and nothing was the same
• For Dad / the sky the night you made me
• Here / 40.7128 N, 74.0060 W

For a memorial, many people show only the name and the date and hide the coordinates and place, or keep the coordinates and hide the place name.

The digital map costs $25 and includes a PNG and a print-ready PDF at 300 DPI, sized for 12x16, 18x24 and 24x36 inch frames. Files arrive by email within minutes of purchase.

Framed prints are $69 for 12x16, $109 for 18x24 and $179 for 24x36. Each comes in a black wood frame with an acrylic front on semi-gloss paper, ready to hang. Shipping is free to the US and 40+ countries and usually takes 7 to 12 business days.

You can add your own photo to any map for $19. Every order is covered by a 14-day money-back guarantee, counted from purchase for digital files and from delivery for framed prints.