SIDERIS PRESS KIT
=================

Sideris is a plate solver and interactive star map for astrophotographers
with simple gear: a camera, a lens, and a star tracker. No telescope and no
go-to mount required.

The descriptions below are the words used in the App Store and Google
Play listings, so an article and the listing describe one app.

The current version of this kit, and the same text as a web page:

    https://siderisstudio.com/press


THE FACTS
---------

Name              Sideris
Developer         Sideris Studio (independent developer)
Platforms         Android 7.0 and later, iOS 15 and later. Phones and
                  tablets. There is no desktop or web version.
Price             Free to install. The first ten plate solves are free,
                  and unlimited solving is a one-time purchase of $9.99 or
                  EUR 9.99. There is no subscription and nothing expires.
Category          Education on Google Play. Education on the App Store,
                  with Reference as the secondary category.
Languages         English
Version           1.0
Availability      Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play
Website           https://siderisstudio.com
Press contact     press@siderisstudio.com
Last updated      4 September 2026


IN ONE SENTENCE
---------------

Sideris is a plate solver and interactive star map for astrophotographers:
photograph the night sky and know exactly where the camera is pointing, with
every solved frame overlaid on the star map.


IN A PARAGRAPH
--------------

Point your camera at the night sky and know exactly what you captured.
Sideris is a plate-solving companion and interactive star map built for
astrophotographers with simple gear: a camera, a lens, and a star tracker.
No go-to mount required. Take a photo of the sky and Sideris solves it: it
identifies the exact patch of sky in the frame and reports where the camera
is pointing, in real celestial coordinates. The photograph is then overlaid
on the star map, at the right angle and the right size, among the stars and
deep-sky objects that surround it.


IN ABOUT 180 WORDS
------------------

Point your camera at the night sky and know exactly what you captured.

Sideris is a plate-solving companion and interactive star map built for
astrophotographers with simple gear: a camera, a lens, and a star tracker.
No go-to mount required. Take a photo of the sky and Sideris solves it: it
identifies the exact patch of sky in the frame and reports where the camera
is pointing, in real celestial coordinates. The photograph is then overlaid
on the star map, at the right angle and the right size, among the stars and
deep-sky objects that surround it.

The star map carries all 110 Messier objects, each with a real NASA and ESA
photograph and an altitude curve showing when it climbs highest and when the
sky is dark enough to shoot it. For the field there is a polar alignment
scope for a star tracker, a dimmable white panel for flat frames, a moon
phase calendar, and a night mode that turns on automatically after dark and
preserves night vision.

Solving works fully offline. No signal needed at your dark site.


COLOURS AND TYPE
----------------

The app is drawn in five colours. The navy is the ground of every screen
and of the banner; the panel colour carries the cards, and it is the navy
the name is set in on the transparent logo. Cyan is the accent by day.
After dark the accent and the text both turn to the night red, painted at
82 percent over the navy so that it glows rather than shouts.

Navy              #1A1A2E
Panel             #2A2A4A
Cyan              #00E5FF
Night red         #FF3535
Text              #E0E0E0

Two typefaces: Inter (https://rsms.me/inter/) for everything written, in
Regular, Medium, SemiBold and Bold, and JetBrains Mono
(https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/) for coordinates and other figures, in
Regular, Medium and SemiBold. Both are published under the SIL Open Font
License, so the seven files are in the type/ folder of this kit with their
licences beside them, and may be used to set a caption or a title in the
app's own voice.


ABOUT THE DEVELOPER
-------------------

Sideris is written by one person. I am a software engineer, and Sideris is
my first app. I took up astrophotography two years ago with a Nikon camera
and a Star Adventurer mount, and found that spending nights under the stars
was wonderful, but that finding small, faint targets without a go-to mount
was a constant frustration.

The workaround I found, in a video by Nico Carver of the Nebula Photos
channel, was to photograph the camera screen and send the picture to
Astrometry.net to find out where it pointed. It worked, but it was slow and
it needed an internet connection. I wrote a prototype around the
open-source solver, found it useful enough that other people with simple
gear, like me, might want it too, and spent about eight months of personal
time turning it into a full app.


WHAT IS IN THIS KIT
-------------------

icon/           The app icon at 1024, 512, 256 and 128 pixels, PNG.
logo-and-name/  The icon with the name beside it, 1650x700, PNG. Two
                versions: one on its own navy panel, which may be placed on
                any ground, and a transparent one with the name in navy, for
                a light background.
banner/         The feature graphic, 1024x500, as PNG and as JPEG.
screenshots/    Seven screens of the app, each in its day and its night
                theme, JPEG at 1080x2340.
type/           Inter and JetBrains Mono as TTF, the files the app itself
                bundles, with the SIL Open Font License for each.


USING THESE FILES
-----------------

These files may be used in articles, reviews and videos about Sideris, in
print and online, without asking first.

Please do not alter the icon or the logo with the name: no recolouring, no
stretching, no added effects, and no cropping. There is no need to: the
transparent logo sets the name in navy for a light page, and the one on its own
panel covers every other ground.

The screenshots may be scaled to fit, but please do not crop or stretch them:
each one shows a real screen of the app, and it should reach a reader as it
reaches a user.

The deep sky photographs shown inside the app, including those visible in the
"deep sky objects" screenshot, are public domain material created by NASA and
ESA. They are not Sideris Studio's to license, and where one appears the
credit belongs to NASA, STScI and ESA.
