Data & Licences

SkyMate is built on decades of public science. These are the sources behind the sky you see, and how we credit them.

Generated from SkyMate’s licence registry on October 5, 2026. Only sources cleared for commercial use and redistribution ship in the app or appear on this site.

Built into SkyMate

Included with the app and used offline: bright stars, constellations, the Solar System, meteor showers and planet textures.

Wikidata

Wikimedia Foundation and Wikidata contributors

What it contributesThe bright stars you see with your eyes: positions, brightness, colour and names.wikidata.org

LicenceCreative Commons CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)SPDX: CC0-1.0

Credit: Star positions, brightness, colours, catalogue numbers, Bayer/Flamsteed designations and names: Wikidata (CC0).

IAU constellation names and boundaries

International Astronomical Union

What it contributesThe 88 constellation names and abbreviations.iau.org/IAU/IAU/Astronomy-FAQs/Constellations.aspx

LicenceCreative Commons Attribution 4.0SPDX: CC-BY-4.0

Credit: Constellation names and abbreviations: International Astronomical Union (IAU), CC BY 4.0.

Global Meteor Network

Global Meteor Network (Western Meteor Physics Group and contributors)

What it contributesWhen each major meteor shower is active and peaks.globalmeteornetwork.org/data

LicenceCreative Commons Attribution 4.0SPDX: CC-BY-4.0

Credit: Meteor shower activity windows, peak solar longitudes and population indices: Global Meteor Network (globalmeteornetwork.org), CC BY 4.0. Draconid and Ursid radiants: medians computed by SkyMate from GMN trajectory data.

Moorhead, Clements & Vida (2022): Meteor shower radiant dispersions in Global Meteor Network data

A. V. Moorhead, T. Clements, D. Vida (MNRAS; arXiv:2205.15423)

What it contributesWhere in the sky each shower's meteors appear to come from, and how fast they are.arxiv.org/abs/2205.15423

LicenceCreative Commons Attribution 4.0SPDX: CC-BY-4.0

Credit: Meteor shower radiants and speeds derived from Moorhead, A. V., Clements, T., & Vida, D. (2022), arXiv:2205.15423, CC BY 4.0; converted to equatorial J2000 by SkyMate.

NASA Meteoroid Environment Office annual meteor shower forecasts

NASA Meteoroid Environment Office (US Government work)

What it contributesHow many meteors to expect at each shower's peak.ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20230015158

LicenceUS Government work, not subject to copyright in the United States

Credit: Typical peak zenithal hourly rates: NASA Meteoroid Environment Office annual meteor shower forecasts (2024–2025). Parent bodies: NASA Science. No NASA endorsement is implied.

IAU Minor Planet Center orbits (MPCORB, AllCometEls)

International Astronomical Union Minor Planet CenterAlso in a data pack

What it contributesOrbits of dwarf planets, asteroids and comets, so SkyMate can calculate where they are.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPCORB.html

LicenceMPC World-Wide Web Policy: freely-available datasets may be redistributed with the source clearly specified

Credit: Comet, asteroid and dwarf-planet orbits: IAU Minor Planet Center (minorplanetcenter.net), MPCORB and AllCometEls. This product has made use of data provided by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center.

Solar System Scope planet textures

Solar System Scope (INOVE)

What it contributesSurface images for the 3D Sun, Moon and planets.solarsystemscope.com/textures

LicenceCreative Commons Attribution 4.0SPDX: CC-BY-4.0

Credit: Planet textures: Solar System Scope (solarsystemscope.com), CC BY 4.0, based on NASA data. Shapes, lighting and orientation are generated by SkyMate.

Data packs

Optional downloads for SkyMate Pro. Each pack carries its own licence file, and the app installs only packs whose sources are cleared.

Galaxies, Nebulae & ClustersPro

Thousands of objects beyond the Solar System.

OpenNGC

Mattia Verga and OpenNGC contributors

What it contributesGalaxies, nebulae and star clusters: positions, types, brightness, sizes and names.github.com/mattiaverga/OpenNGC

LicenceCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0SPDX: CC-BY-SA-4.0ShareAlike

Credit: Contains data derived from OpenNGC by Mattia Verga (github.com/mattiaverga/OpenNGC), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified by SkyMate. The derived data file is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 from SkyMate's data server. ShareAlike: the data SkyMate derives from this source is published separately under the same licence at data.skymate.space, together with its licence file.

Worlds Around Other StarsPro

Stars known to have planets orbiting them.

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia (exoplanet.eu)

Observatoire de Paris – PSL

What it contributesStars with known planets, and each planet's size, year and how it was found.exoplanet.eu

LicenceCreative Commons Attribution 4.0SPDX: CC-BY-4.0

Credit: Exoplanet data: The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia, exoplanet.eu (Observatoire de Paris), CC BY 4.0. This product has made use of data obtained from the portal exoplanet.eu. Modified by SkyMate (filtered and converted).

Comets & AsteroidsPro

Smaller worlds moving through the Solar System, with orbits refreshed monthly.

IAU Minor Planet Center orbits (MPCORB, AllCometEls)

International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center

What it contributesOrbits of dwarf planets, asteroids and comets, so SkyMate can calculate where they are.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPCORB.html

LicenceMPC World-Wide Web Policy: freely-available datasets may be redistributed with the source clearly specified

More StarsNot available yet

Fainter stars for binoculars and telescopes.

No star catalog deep enough for this pack is currently cleared for commercial redistribution, so it isn’t offered.

Live data

Fetched by the app while you use it, cached on your iPhone and shown with its source and age. Astronomy events are calculated on your iPhone.

Apple Weather (WeatherKit)Cloud layers, humidity, visibility and precipitation for the observing forecast.Apple Developer Program terms. In the app only: the Apple Weather mark and legal link appear next to weather data. This website shows no weather.
NOAA Space Weather Prediction CenterKp index (observed and 3-day forecast) and the aurora nowcast.US Government work, public domain. Credit shown: “Space weather: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center”.
CelesTrakSatellite orbital elements (from US Space Force public data) for ISS passes and satellite layers in the app, and for pass times on this website.Free to use with credit; fetched at most once every 2 hours per group. Credit shown: “Orbital data: CelesTrak (celestrak.org)”.

On this website

skymate.space uses the same cleared catalog data as the app. Positions and times are calculated on our server for your place.

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia (exoplanet.eu)Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 · Stars with known planets, and each planet's size, year and how it was found.
Global Meteor NetworkCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 · When each major meteor shower is active and peaks.
IAU constellation names and boundariesCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 · The 88 constellation names and abbreviations.
Moorhead, Clements & Vida (2022): Meteor shower radiant dispersions in Global Meteor Network dataCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 · Where in the sky each shower's meteors appear to come from, and how fast they are.
IAU Minor Planet Center orbits (MPCORB, AllCometEls)MPC World-Wide Web Policy: freely-available datasets may be redistributed with the source clearly specified · Orbits of dwarf planets, asteroids and comets, so SkyMate can calculate where they are.
NASA Meteoroid Environment Office annual meteor shower forecastsUS Government work, not subject to copyright in the United States · How many meteors to expect at each shower's peak.
OpenNGCCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 · Galaxies, nebulae and star clusters: positions, types, brightness, sizes and names.
WikidataCreative Commons CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication) · The bright stars you see with your eyes: positions, brightness, colour and names.
CelesTrakSatellite orbital elements for the pass times shown on this site. Free to use with credit; fetched at most once every 2 hours per group. Credit shown: “Orbital data: CelesTrak (celestrak.org)”.
Astronomy EngineSoftware, MIT licence · Positions, rise and set times, Moon phases and eclipses on this website.
satellite.jsSoftware, MIT licence · Satellite position calculations on this website.

This website shows no weather and no third-party photographs. If an image is added later, its credit appears next to it.

Also cleared, not currently shipped

In the registry and cleared, but not used by the current app or packs.

Open Exoplanet Catalogue

Hanno Rein and contributors

What it contributesStars with known planets and their planets' sizes, years and discovery details.github.com/OpenExoplanetCatalogue/open_exoplanet_catalogue

LicenceMIT-style licence ("Database" in place of "Software")SPDX: MIT

Credit: Exoplanet data: Open Exoplanet Catalogue, Copyright (C) 2012 Hanno Rein. Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this database to deal in the Database without restriction, subject to including this copyright and permission notice.

Not used

Missing licence information isn’t permission. These well-known catalogs aren’t in SkyMate:

Yale Bright Star Catalogue (BSC5)It carries no licence statement, so it was removed. Basic Sky is built from Wikidata (CC0) instead.
Hipparcos, Tycho-2 and Gaia (ESA)Licensed for non-commercial use only (CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO), so SkyMate doesn’t use them.

Every source in the registry today is cleared; anything pending or non-commercial would be listed here and kept out of the app and this site.

© SkyMate

The third-party licences above cover their datasets only. SkyMate’s own work, including its descriptions, constellation figures, guides, software and this website’s design, is © SkyMate and isn’t covered by those licences.

SkyMate original dataConstellation figures, the curated object guide and explanations.Constellation line figures, the curated object guide and Ask SkyMate explanations are SkyMate's own work.

Think something is credited incorrectly? Tell us through the support form. See also Privacy and Terms.