Star Signs: The Real Sky

You know your sign. You’ve probably never been shown it.

Star Signs is an astronomy course that starts where you already are. Pick your sign, and it shows you the real stars it’s made of, how far apart they are, where to find them tonight, and why the sun was probably somewhere else on your birthday. Five minutes a lesson, with something to play with in every one.

One family works through it with you, over one school year. Sarah turns fifteen in August and asks her phone for a birthday reading. The app agrees, then keeps getting distracted by true things. Her grandfather Mark, a retired ship’s navigator, takes everyone into the backyard. Her best friend Lisa finds out in December that she was born under a thirteenth constellation. Her dad Dustin is sure it’s all nonsense, until the app makes him check the sums. And on a clear night in April, Sarah finds Leo on her own.

WHAT’S INSIDE
• 24 modules and 96 five-minute lessons, in five parts
• A map of your sign that turns side on, so you can watch the shape fall apart
• Where your sign is right now, worked out from your clock and a latitude slider. No location permission
• Your birthday against the sun: the constellation it was really in, Ophiuchus included
• Your birth star: the star whose light left around the year you were born
• A true story in every module: Hipparchus, Rømer timing light, Tombaugh finding Pluto, the 1985 test astrologers helped design, the time twins
• A Sky Card at the end of every module: one page for the next clear night
• A Talk Card from every lesson, and a Dinner Table Challenge in every module

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
What a constellation is. Which stars are in your sign and how far apart they are. How to find your sign tonight, and why you can’t see it on your birthday. Why the brightest star isn’t the nearest. How old starlight is. Where the twelve signs and their dates came from, why they slid about a month out of step with the sky, and the thirteenth constellation on the sun’s path. Whether the planets’ gravity could affect you. Why a horoscope feels so accurate. What happened when astrology was tested fairly. The birth-month effects that are real. And why so many people love their horoscope anyway.

NOBODY’S ASKING YOU TO STOP
This course never tells you to stop reading your horoscope. It shows you what the sky is doing and what a reading is doing, and lets you decide.

NO ACCOUNT, NO ADS, NO TRACKING
There’s nothing to sign into. Your sign and your progress stay on your phone. No analytics, no advertising, no location. The app works offline.

Star Signs is a Pettigrew Lab project.