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New · Hand of the Cross for Wear OS: become a tester → Sidereal Clocks · For round-display makers

An astronomical clock
for your round displays.

Two live dials, one sky. The Southern Cross rides the Hand of the Cross, and the Sun, Moon and planets move among the stars in their true directions. It is round by nature, and it gives architects, hotels, boardrooms, universities and schools a reason to buy a round screen. I am looking for the round-screen maker to build it with.

Run it on your display Discuss a display partnership
The Northern Movement Clockwise hands · sky anticlockwise around Polaris
The Crux Movement The signature dial · clockwise · the Southern Cross
Northern dial
Southern Cross on the Northern dial

Full screen: Southern dial · Northern dial

The Southern Cross can never be seen from the far north. On the Northern dial the Hand of the Cross can carry its reflection, switched on or off, over the real northern sky, joining the two ends of Earth in one clockwise-reading pair.

Sidereal --:--:-- · --:--:-- · Meridian --

For round-screen makers

A reason to buy a round screen

Most content is made for rectangles. A clock is round by nature, and this one turns a round panel into a piece of design that people buy for a room.

  • New buyers

    Architects, interior designers, hotels, corporate offices, universities and schools: people who choose a fine clock for a room, not a monitor.

  • Sold as an instrument

    A framed astronomical clock is priced as a design object, tuned to the meridian of the building it hangs in. Every one sold carries a round panel and a player.

  • Ready to run

    The software is finished and runs in any modern browser, online or offline, with nothing for you to produce.

  • A showpiece for you

    Use the live clock in your demonstrations, trade-show stands and marketing. It shows what a round panel can do.

The proposal: you bring the panel and the player; I bring the clock, its design and the market for it. Terms we agree together once you have seen it on your hardware.

Display test kit

See it on your panel today

It has not yet run on a round panel. Yours could be the first. Each dial is a single web page: open it on your player, tap once for full screen, and it keeps time all day. Self-contained versions that run without an internet connection are in the kit.

  1. 1

    Open it on the device

    Type the address into the browser on your player. The dial fills the short side of the screen on black, so it suits round panels and square panels behind a round mask.

    siderealclocks.com/display

    See both dials Southern dial Northern dial
  2. 2

    Or run it offline

    The kit holds both dials as stand-alone files with instructions for Android, Linux and Windows players. No installation and no internet connection needed.

    Download the kit · ZIP, 177 KB
  3. 3

    See how it performs

    Add ?stats=1 to the address for a readout of the panel's real pixels, its frame rate and the time each update takes. A photo of it running tells me more than anything.

    ?tz=10 sets the UTC offset if the player runs on UTC. ?inset=3 adds a margin if a bezel covers the edge. ?size=400 draws the dial at exactly 400 pixels in the top-left corner, for LED controllers.

Format
One HTML file per dial, about 150 KB, drawn as vector graphics: sharp at any resolution
Runs on
Any modern browser engine: Chromium, Android WebView, WebKit or Firefox
Workload
Redraws once a second. No video, no network after loading
Time
From the device clock, in standard time all year, like the sky

Small round screens driven by a microcontroller, with no browser, cannot run these files. If that is your platform, tell me about it all the same.

Where the clocks are headed

A sky for the room

The aim is a framed edition: a round screen running the live sky, chosen for a lobby, a boardroom or a library the way a fine clock is. It is planned in two sizes: 40 cm for residences, offices and hotel suites, and 60 cm for architectural walls, with larger pieces for lobbies to follow.

Calibrated to the building. Each clock can be tuned to the exact meridian of the site where it hangs, so the angles of its stars match the sky above that roof. It is a bespoke service with every commission.

  • Architects and interior designersA centrepiece specified into the building
  • Corporate offices and boardroomsA statement piece for reception and the board table
  • Hotels and fine accommodationLobbies, lounges and suites
  • Universities and schoolsA working instrument for teaching the sky
  • Observatories and public spacesMuseums, planetaria and civic buildings
A note from the founder

Let’s put it on your screens

I am William Turner, the designer. The software is finished: both dials run live and keep true astronomical time. It has not yet been on a round screen. What it needs now is the right round panel, the right player and a manufacturer who sees the market in it. Tell me:

  • a suitable screen model and its native resolution
  • the player or controller you would run it on, all day, every day
  • how you would like to trial the clock on your hardware
  • whether you would like to make it with me

I would be glad for the clock to appear in your own demonstrations and marketing. Terms can follow once there is interest on both sides.

— William Turner, founder, Sidereal Clocks

Get in touch

Discuss a display partnership

Nothing is for sale yet. Architects, designers and anyone else with a room in mind are just as welcome. I reply to every message personally.

Your details are used only to reply to you. You can also email concierge@siderealclocks.com directly.