What Star Hop does — and doesn’t — do with your information.
We don’t keep your information beyond standard web-server logs and a short-lived abuse counter, and both expire automatically.
There are no accounts, no ads and no tracking scripts. Like any website, our server automatically logs each request (your IP address, the time, what was asked for and your browser type) and those logs are deleted on a schedule.
To stop automated abuse, searches and chart requests are also counted per visitor for about an hour. The count is filed under a scrambled form of your IP address that cannot be turned back into it, and it is deleted shortly afterwards. That is all.
Your equipment settings stay in your browser.
Your telescopes, eyepieces, Barlows and day/night choice are saved in a cookie on your own computer or phone so you don’t have to type them again. We don’t keep a copy. Clear your browser’s cookies at any time and Star Hop forgets them.
If you use “Copy setup link” to move your settings to another device, they travel inside the link itself (the part after the #), which browsers never send to our server.
A search sends what you typed to SIMBAD, but not your IP address.
Object searches are answered by SIMBAD, the astronomical database run by the CDS in Strasbourg. Our server passes your search text to SIMBAD on your behalf, so SIMBAD sees our server’s address, not yours. Their privacy policy applies to the search text. See SIMBAD’s privacy policy.
To keep repeat searches fast, we save SIMBAD’s answers on our server for a while. What you typed is not stored with them.
Entering coordinates yourself, without searching, sends nothing to SIMBAD.
Only if you switch it on.
The overlay photograph is requested by your browser straight from the CDS image service, so CDS sees your IP address and the patch of sky you asked for. The same CDS privacy policy applies.
It is emailed to the author and not stored on this site.
What you type is sent by email to the author, who may reply to the address you give. Your browser type and window size are added to help reproduce problems. If you include a setup link, it contains your equipment list. To limit abuse, messages are counted per visitor for about an hour, under the same scrambled form of your IP address described above.
It leaves Star Hop.
“Support This Tool” opens PayPal in a new tab. What happens there is between you and PayPal.
Last updated October 2026