Beacon — constellations behind the live sky in AR

In the AR view, Beacon draws the constellations behind the live aircraft, ships, and satellites — so the moving signals you track have the fixed night sky as their backdrop.

Where the stars come from:
Aircraft and ships broadcast their position; satellites are computed from orbital elements. The stars are different — they sit at effectively-infinite distance, so where each one appears in your sky is a pure function of where you are and the current time. Beacon takes the star catalog (stored in the J2000 equatorial frame) and resolves every star to a real bearing and elevation for your location and clock, then pins it in AR exactly like a target. Nothing is downloaded and nothing is broadcast — the math runs right on your device.

What you see:
• Bright, figure-defining stars drawn as soft dots, with the brighter stars (like Sirius or Polaris) standing out.
• The stick-figure lines the eye traces — the Big Dipper's ladle, Orion's belt, and the rest of a curated starting set of the most recognizable constellations.
• A faint, letter-spaced constellation name, styled to label the sky without competing with the live aircraft and satellite labels.

Using it:
Raise your phone and pan across the sky. The constellation overlay can be toggled on or off in the AR view, and it slowly recomputes as the Earth turns so the stars stay anchored where they really are. If the compass reads a little off, use the North nudge buttons — the stars move with the rest of the scene.

This is a starting set of constellations, not all 88 — the catalog grows over time, and the same placement math powers everything Beacon pins in the sky.