Data used by NightAstro

NightAstro uses only the information required for its tools to operate. At this stage, the site does not yet provide member accounts, on-site payment or photo uploads by visitors.

Contact form

When you use the contact form, NightAstro processes the name, email address, subject and message you enter in order to reply to your request. The NightAstro plugin does not store these messages in its database: they are sent by email to the site contact address. This information is not used for advertising purposes.

Newsletter

When you subscribe to the NightAstro newsletter, your email address is sent to MailPoet to manage the subscription and message delivery. Subscription uses email confirmation (double opt-in): no newsletter is sent until you have confirmed your address. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link included in each message.

People who ask to receive AutoStack updates may be added to a dedicated list. NightAstro uses the MailPoet Sending Service to deliver newsletters.

Location and weather

When you click “Use my location”, your browser may ask for permission to access your location. The coordinates are then used to obtain weather forecasts and approximately identify the observing location. If you enter a city or postal code, that search is sent to the geocoding service used by NightAstro.

NightAstro uses Open-Meteo for location search and weather forecasts, among other purposes, and BigDataCloud for some reverse-geocoding operations. These services may receive the technical data required for the request, in accordance with their own privacy policies.

When automatic light-pollution estimation is available, NightAstro sends DarkSkySites only a position rounded to two decimal places, from the NightAstro server. The API key is never sent to the browser. The SQM/Bortle result is cached server-side to limit calls to the service: it is considered fresh for 35 days and may be retained as a fallback value for up to 180 days. The browser’s precise position is therefore not sent to DarkSkySites.

Preferences stored in your browser

The “My accessible horizon” setting, your last selected instrument, your Bortle class when provided, the last city selected manually and your night-mode choice are stored locally in your browser so that your preferences are retained between pages. For the city, NightAstro stores the locality name and its city coordinates locally. The precise position obtained with “Use my location” is not stored by this mechanism. These preferences are not used for advertising purposes.

Audience measurement and technical logs

The site uses Independent Analytics to measure traffic. The counter shown on the home page only reuses the aggregate number of sessions provided by this tool since NightAstro launched. A session corresponds to one visit and may include several page views. NightAstro Core adds no additional tracking for this counter. WordPress and the hosting provider may also use strictly technical cookies and retain security or connection logs required for the site to operate.

External services

The astronomy calculation libraries used by NightAstro, including SunCalc and Astronomy Engine, are served locally from the site. NightAstro also uses DarkSkySites to provide an SQM/Bortle estimate when this feature is enabled; only the position rounded to two decimal places is sent from the server. NightAstro also provides links to astronomy services or image sources; opening those links is subject to their own terms and privacy policies.

Your rights

For any question about your data or to exercise your rights, you can contact the publisher at: contact@nightastro.fr.

This page will be updated before future community features such as “My sky”, user accounts or photo uploads are enabled.