Privacy

This site has no accounts, no advertising and no advertising cookies. Fonts are served from our own domain.

We use Google Analytics for Firebase (a Google service) to understand how the site is used: which pages are viewed and which features are used — for example the forecast mode, the map layer or the share button — along with your device type, browser and an approximate location that Google derives from your IP address. It never receives your coordinates, the places you look up or what you type into a search box. In the EU, the UK and Switzerland the site sets no analytics cookies: visits are counted without storing an identifier in your browser. Elsewhere Google Analytics sets its own first-party cookies to tell visits apart. Google's processing is described at policies.google.com/privacy.

The forecast pages also send anonymous usage counts to our own server — event name, page, time and a random session id that is deleted when you close the tab — never coordinates, place names or search text.

City pages are computed by our server for the coordinates of that city. In the live forecast, the place you choose (or your device location, only if you allow it) is rounded to about 1 km before it is sent to our forecast server; place search is answered by OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service. The last forecast for each of the places you open (up to 12) is kept in your browser, never sent anywhere, so it can still be shown if you lose your connection. The moon calendar and telescope calculator run entirely in your browser.

Like any web server, ours may keep standard access logs (IP address, time, page requested, browser) for security and troubleshooting, retained only for a short period and not used to identify you.

Alerts are off until you turn them on at /alerts. Then your browser gives us a push address (issued by your browser's push service — Google, Mozilla, Apple or Microsoft) and we store it with your alert settings: the places you add (rounded to about 1 km, with the name you see), your limits, your time zone and quiet hours. There is no account, and nothing else about you is stored. The notification text is encrypted so that only your browser can read it; the push service only sees that a message was sent.

Turning alerts off deletes all of it straight away. If your browser withdraws the permission we delete it the next time we try to notify you, and settings nobody has used for 180 days expire on their own.

“Add to calendar” builds the calendar file in your browser; nothing is sent.

The Astronight app for iPhone and Android has no advertising and no tracking, and needs no sign-up. Behind the scenes it creates an anonymous account (Firebase Authentication, a Google service) so that it can talk to our forecast server; that account carries no name or email.

Location is optional. If you allow it (only while you use the app — never in the background), or when you pick a place yourself, the coordinates are rounded to about 1 km before they are sent to our forecast server for the forecast, the map and satellite passes. Our servers may keep standard request logs, including those rounded coordinates, for a short period for security and troubleshooting. Places you save stay on your device.

Place search first looks in a list of places built into the app. Only when you tap “Search online” is the text you typed sent to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service — never your location.

The satellite imagery on the map (infrared, visible and water vapour) is loaded directly from NASA GIBS and from EUMETSAT. Like any website, those services see your device's IP address and which part of the map you are viewing — not your location — and handle it under their own privacy policies. Comet data comes from our own server, api.astronight.app, and nothing about you is sent with it.

Clear-night alerts, sky-event notifications and pass reminders are worked out on your device and delivered as local notifications; the app has no push server and asks for notification permission only when you turn a notification on. The widget reads tonight's forecast from the app on the same device.

To improve the app we use Google Analytics for Firebase (screens viewed, features used — for example the forecast mode or the map layer — and paywall views) and Firebase Crashlytics (crash reports with device model and system version), linked to a per-installation identifier, never to your name or email. Subscriptions are handled by Apple or Google and by RevenueCat, which tells the app whether you have Astronight Pro; we never see your payment details.

Everything else — including the full ra2lab privacy policy that covers all our apps — is at the link below.

Deleting the app removes everything stored on your device: saved places, alert settings and preferences. To have the analytics and account data linked to your installation deleted from our side, email support@ra2lab.io. There is nothing else to delete: the app has no account with your name or email.

Questions about privacy: support@ra2lab.io.