The first Public Universe release. Browse planets, moons, asteroids, comets, trans-Neptunian objects and confirmed exoplanets with their sources; plan an observing night with explained limits; keep a private observing workspace; use free classroom and university resources; and reuse the whole catalogue through the open API, the astronomy plugin or a nightly database download.
Explore and learn
- Explore, Observe, Learn and Data give children, teachers, observers and researchers a starting point. Catalogue browsing and learning stay free without an account.
- Every object page shows what the catalogue knows: orbit quality, discovery, close approaches, atmosphere and alternative names. Objects without a written description get a plain sentence built from their orbit, size and discovery, so a sparse record still explains itself.
- Upcoming Earth close approaches have their own page, with recorded mass where one exists. The home page features the next approach within ten lunar distances and an object of the day. Approach pages draw the flyby geometry from above the ecliptic, with the Moon's orbit for scale.
- Search solar-system objects and exoplanets together. Browse measured planetary systems, open their planets or find them on the galaxy map; the optional 3D view loads only when requested.
- Meteor-shower pages keep separate observation campaigns and approximate seasonal guidance; they are not visibility forecasts.
- Share any object with a redesigned share card. Official Public Universe social profiles are linked from every page.
- Pages now carry descriptive titles and structured data describing the catalogue, its licence and sources, so search engines and dataset indexes can find and attribute it. Sign-in, registration and account pages are kept out of search results.
For classrooms and lecture halls
- Free classroom handouts for UK Key Stages, with the matching US grades shown beside each stage, print as A4 and refresh themselves from live data.
- Printable undergraduate activities cover orbital laws, exoplanet selection effects and reproducible data analysis, with source values, units and dates kept together.
- The astronomy plugin guide explains how to connect Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot to the catalogue, and the difference between a data connection and reusable skills.
- A private feedback form lets anyone request a feature, report a problem or contact the team without an account.
Keep your own observing workspace
- Save telescopes, binoculars, eyepieces, Barlows, reducers, cameras and observing sites in your browser by default. Known measurements keep explicit units; unknown values stay unknown.
- Locate a site from a what3words address, or enter coordinates and an optional horizon profile. Imported files are previewed before anything is replaced.
- Create observing lists, record actual observation times, outcomes and notes, and correct or rename them later without losing the original setup. A planned target is not proof of an observation.
- Download JSON, CSV or print views with explicit location choices. Notes, dates and derived context can still reveal personal information even when coordinates are omitted, so keep exports private.
- An optional account copy uploads, restores or removes your workspace only after an explicit preview and consent. Signing in on its own transfers nothing. Account copies are encrypted by the server, not end to end.
- With an account you can also receive email visibility alerts for chosen targets.
Prepare a night, with its limits explained
- Choose a date, time zone, rounded location and available hours, or copy a saved site. The night calculation applies your minimum altitude, horizon, darkness and Moon-separation choices.
- Request a short target shortlist for a site, night and equipment without knowing catalogue identifiers. Sampling can miss brief opportunities, so an empty shortlist does not mean there is nothing to observe.
- Accessible charts and tables explain geometric windows for the Moon, planets and the starter catalogue of bright stars, double stars and deep-sky objects. Empty, unresolved and unavailable results mean different things and are labelled as such.
- Optional hourly weather is requested separately for matching forecast hours. Clear weather does not establish that a target is observable.
- Compare eyepieces by magnification, exit pupil and field width, and preview a camera's field from its sensor geometry. These are geometric comparisons, not sky images or detection promises.
- Seeing, sky brightness, optical quality and unmeasured obstacles can still prevent a useful view. This site does not control telescopes and gives no solar-observing instructions.
Reuse the data
- The open catalogue API is published at api.publicuniverse.net with a developer reference and try-it examples. The site itself reads the catalogue over its own network, so visitor traffic no longer competes with API users.
- The whole database can be downloaded as a nightly SQLite file with checksums, under an open licence, with NASA/JPL, the NASA Exoplanet Archive and the IAU Minor Planet Center credited as sources.
- Night calculations report their model, Earth-orientation data and, when configured, the checksum-pinned JPL kernel. Catalogue metadata separates a logical data identity from a build identity, and exports keep original measurements, units, limits and references.
- A moving live API is not an archive. Exact repetition still needs retained source snapshots, the original inputs and compatible calculation software.
- Analytics run only with your consent. An essential cookie remembers that choice; nothing else is stored until you accept.
Known limits
- The starter observing catalogue is bounded and is not a complete sky survey; unsupported coordinates stay browsable without a calculation promise.
- Local tests and selected browser checks do not establish field performance, assistive-technology coverage or behaviour on lower-power devices.
- The catalogue's named-only filter does not yet filter, so the sitemap lists asteroids by size rather than by name.
- Corrections to these notes will appear in the next release; published notes are not edited.