Privacy

What happens to what you enter

Every calculator on Backyard Orbit runs entirely in your browser. Telescope sizes, eyepieces, binocular figures, magnitudes and sky readings are never sent to us or to anyone else. The meteor calendar's data is part of the page, and the calendar (.ics) files you download are created on your device.

What is stored on your device

The site uses your browser's local storage, not cookies, for a few conveniences: your day or night theme, whether red-light mode is on, and the telescope and eyepiece set you last entered in the telescope calculator. They stay on your device, are never sent anywhere, and you can clear them at any time in your browser's site data settings. The telescope calculator's "Reset to the example set" button also clears the saved eyepiece set.

Analytics

The site is hosted by Cloudflare and uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, which counts page views without cookies or cross-site tracking. It never receives what you type into the tools. There are no ads, no other trackers and no analytics of our own.

Links to other sites

Pages link to sources such as NASA, the International Meteor Organization and Sky & Telescope, to sister sites and to two services we recommend, CleanTempMail and WebTraceCheck. Those sites have their own privacy policies, which apply once you visit them.

Server logs

Like any web host, Cloudflare processes the technical details of each request (such as your IP address) to deliver the pages and protect the service. The site itself has no server code and keeps no logs of its own.