Changelog
What has changed
Astral Archive is a static site: every figure is computed in your browser from files bundled at build time, and nothing is fetched while you read it. This page records the user-facing changes to that archive, newest first.
Last updated 27 September 2026.
In short
- The archive ships as static files. There is no database and no runtime API, so a "change" here means a new dataset, a rebuilt page, or a correction to what a page claims.
- The underlying catalogues are imported at build time: 305 stars, 101 deep-sky objects, 88 constellations, 21 survey bands, 84 mission records, 64 preprints and 10 tracked objects.
- This log begins with the documentation pass of 27 September 2026. Earlier build history is not separately recorded here.
September 2026
27 September 2026
Documentation pass
- Added the Methodology page — the ledger of how every distance, every survey band and every propagated orbit in the archive is produced, written out in plain language.
- Added the Data sources page — every dataset the archive is built from, what each one contributes, and how current it is.
- Removed dead footer links across the site. The homepage's About column now points to Methodology and Data sources instead of anchors that went nowhere.
- Added a link-integrity check to the build verification, so a placeholder link that points at nothing — an empty fragment — now fails the build instead of shipping, as does a link to a page that does not exist.
Earlier
Before this log
The mission records, the 88-constellation planetarium, the live orrery, the deep-sky atlas across 21 bands, the preprint library, the live satellite tracker and the mission console were built and shipped in earlier passes. Their history predates this changelog; what each one does today is described on its own page and, where a claim is involved, on the Methodology page.
How to read a version
Because the site is static and offline-capable, "updates" arrive as rebuilt files rather than a server-side change. The service worker keeps the pages you have already visited available without a network; a rebuild replaces those cached files the next time you are online. No account, email or notice of the day is required to receive one — reopen the site and you have the current build.