Personalised solar system print — the planets on your special day

A solar system print: the eight planets around the Sun, each one where it actually was on the day you met, on your wedding day or on the day someone was born, with your names, the place, a line of your own and the date. It suits a couple, new parents or anyone who loves stargazing, and it is made to order.

Yes. Each planet’s position around the Sun is worked out for your date from the orbital elements published by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to within a few tenths of a degree. Two different dates give two different prints: in a single month, Mercury gains a quarter of a lap on the Earth.

Because Neptune is almost 78 times further from the Sun than Mercury: to scale, Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Mars would fit inside a circle less than two centimetres across on a 30 × 40 cm print. So the orbits are evenly spaced. The angles are true; the size of the planets is symbolic, with Jupiter still the biggest.

No: names and a date are enough. The place makes no difference to where the planets are around the Sun; it is simply printed under your names. The time is optional: without it we calculate the positions for midday, and they are off by less than a degree, except Mercury, by three degrees at most. If you give it, it is printed and read as Paris winter time, one hour ahead of Irish winter time; an hour either way moves Mercury by a sixth of a degree.

The solar system is seen from above, from the north: every planet travels anticlockwise. Moving out from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, the Earth circled by a fine line, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and its ring, Uranus and Neptune. Each planet is lit on the side facing the Sun, and the direction of the spring equinox points to the right, the usual convention in astronomy diagrams.

Pluto is not on it: the International Astronomical Union reclassified it as a dwarf planet in 2006, and the print shows the eight planets. Nor is the Moon: seen from the Sun, it stays within a sixth of a degree of the Earth.

Any date from 1 January 1900 to 31 December 2050, the period over which we guarantee the calculation. A future date is fine too: a wedding gift can be given before the big day.

No. The Earth comes back to almost the same spot on every anniversary — that is what a year is — but the other planets do not: Mars takes almost two years to go round the Sun, Jupiter almost twelve, Neptune a hundred and sixty-five. The print for the same day changes every year.

Yes: the preview is composed by the same editor as the print, and a “Check your poster” screen opens before the basket. The greyed-out lines are the page’s example: they are never printed.

A4, 30 × 40, 40 × 60, 50 × 70 and 70 × 100 cm: standard frame sizes, easy to find. Optional wooden frame on the A4 and 30 × 40, in black, white or natural, with acrylic glass; the larger sizes ship rolled, to frame at home.

250 g/m² satin matte paper, lightfast pigment inks. Printed to order in our workshop up to 40 × 60, by our printer beyond that. Shipped rolled, in a sturdy long cardboard box; the A4 travels flat, in a stiff card envelope.

Yes. The print-ready file contains all five sizes, each as a PDF and as a 300 dpi PNG — ten files in all, by a download link sent after payment, to print wherever you like.

Your poster is dispatched within 48 hours, then delivered in six to seven days to Ireland and the rest of Europe (four to five in France) — to your home or a pickup point, home delivery only for the 50 × 70 and 70 × 100. For a fixed date, allow ten days outside France. The download link for the printable file is sent as soon as payment is confirmed.