Policy
Privacy notice
Astral Archive can be read in full without an account. This page states exactly what the site stores, and what it deliberately does not.
Last updated 26 September 2026 — the stored-value list was corrected against the code that writes it.
In short
- No cookies are set, and no cookie banner is needed because there is nothing to consent to.
- No analytics, advertising or session-recording service is loaded.
- No request leaves this site while you browse it. Fonts, stylesheets, scripts and all data are served from the same origin.
- Observing coordinates you enter are kept in this browser alone, and every rise, set and pass time is worked out locally from them.
- No account, email address or payment detail is required to use anything the site does today.
- What the site remembers lives in this browser alone — nine local-storage keys, listed in full below, plus the lists, log and searches you choose to save.
What is stored on your device
Everything the site remembers lives in your browser's local storage, under the keys listed below. There is no other store: no cookie is set, and nothing in this list is transmitted anywhere.
| Key | Written when | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
astral.observer |
You set an observing site | The latitude, longitude and optional label you typed or accepted. Read by the arithmetic that computes every transit, twilight and pass time on this machine. |
astral:access:v2 |
A licence is activated on this device | A tier (guest or member), where it came from, when it was last checked, and the licence record if there is one. This is the value every page reads to decide what to display, so it is the one that matters today. It is not proof of payment on its own: the record lives in your browser, so anyone can edit it from a console, which is exactly why nothing of value is gated behind it alone. |
astral:renderDepth:v1 |
You switch between standard and high definition | Which of the two rendering tiers you last chose on the sky and deep-sky pages, so the cheaper field stays chosen on your next visit. It is a display preference and not an entitlement: it grants nothing, and deleting it only resets the choice. |
astral_archive_member |
By an older version of this site | A superseded membership flag: the string true or false. The current build reads it the first time it loads, carries the answer into the record above, and then deletes it, so an existing member is not downgraded by an upgrade and the two cannot drift apart afterwards. Named here because a device that visited an earlier build may still be holding it. |
astral:licence:v3 |
A licence key is verified | The licence key you entered and the result of checking it. Written only when you activate a key in the membership dialog, and removed when you sign out on this device. |
astral:member:v1 |
By an older version of this site | A superseded membership flag. The current code reads it once, carries the choice forward into the record above, and then deletes it. Named here because a device that visited an earlier build may still be holding it. |
astral_archive_library_usage |
You search the Library | Today's date and how many of the twenty free searches you have used, so the allowance resets by itself tomorrow. It counts searches; it does not record what you searched for. |
astral_archive_console_order |
You rearrange console panels | The order you dragged the Mission Console panels into, so the layout survives a reload. |
astral_archive_console_mission |
You switch mission | Which mission the console is showing, so reopening the page returns you to it. |
None of these values contains an identifier, and none is read by anything except the page that wrote it. Clearing this site's browsing data removes all of them. An observing site can also be removed from the interface itself with Clear on the panel that set it.
Use my location hands the job to the browser's own permission prompt, which is the thing that decides whether a position is released at all. Whatever comes back is treated exactly like typed coordinates: two numbers held in this browser, and nothing more.
Two features keep their own store in your browser instead of local storage, and both are opt-in by use. Saving a target list, an observing-log entry or a saved search writes to an IndexedDB database named astral-archive, which can hold more and is queried by date rather than re-read whole. The service worker keeps a cache of this site's own files so that the pages you have already visited open without a network; it is cleared from your browser's site-data controls, like the rest. Everything outside these two is held in memory for the life of the tab and is gone when you close it.
What the site does not do
The archive does not connect to third-party servers for anything it displays. Data from public catalogues and space-agency archives is imported when the site is built and bundled as ordinary files; the orbital element set behind the tracker is captured the same way. Your browser reads those files from the same origin as the page, which is why the pages work offline once loaded.
The single exception is the licence check behind the paid membership, and it only runs when you ask it to: activating a key, or re-checking one this device already holds. That request carries the licence key and a plain name for the device — the browser and platform your user agent reports, which is what you would recognise in a list of your own machines — to the merchant of record that took the payment. It carries nothing else, it happens on the merchant's own domain, and browsing the site never triggers it.
Server logs
This repository contains only static files. Whichever host serves them may keep standard access logs, such as the page requested and the requesting address, as part of normal operation. That logging happens at the host and outside the control of this project; the site itself adds no tracking of its own.
If that changes
Target lists, an observing log and saved searches are already implemented, but entirely in your own browser, which is why they need no account and no notice of their own. The paid membership is the one feature that needs an outside service, and it is built as narrowly as that allows: the payment happens on the merchant's own checkout page, and the only thing this site sends anywhere is the licence key you paste in, together with a name for the device, when you activate or re-check it. No account is created here, no email address is collected here, and nothing about what you browse is transmitted. If a feature is added that keeps anything about you on a server, this notice will be rewritten to describe what is collected, where it lives and how long it is kept before it ships, and the date at the top of this page will change.
Contact
Questions or corrections: hello@astral-archive.app.