Planetaria

Owner's manual

Planetaria is a small globe with a round screen that shows Earth as it looks right now: daylight where the Sun is up, real clouds from NASA satellites, and city lights at night. It can also show the other planets, the Moon, the Sun and tonight's sky, and you can play your own videos on it.

There's no app and no account. Connect it to your WiFi once and leave it plugged in.

1. Setting it up

You'll need the globe, its USB-C cable, and your WiFi name and password.

1. Plug it in. Any USB-C phone charger works. After a short start-up, the globe shows a Set up WiFi screen.
2. Join its WiFi. On your phone, connect to the network called Planetaria-Setup (no password).
3. The setup page opens. If it doesn't, open a browser and go to 192.168.4.1.
4. Enter your WiFi. Pick your network, type the password, and tap Save & connect.
5. Note the address. After 10 to 30 seconds the page shows the globe's address, like http://192.168.1.42. If the password was wrong, it says so and you can try again. If the page just keeps spinning, your phone may have dropped off the setup network; the globe shows the address on its own screen after it restarts.

Reconnect your phone to your own WiFi. Within a minute or two the globe shows the live Earth.

The globe shows its address every time it starts. On iPhone, Mac and most PCs, http://planetaria.local also works (many Android phones need the number instead).

School or work WiFi: if the network needs a username as well as a password, the setup page shows a Username field for it. An optional Advanced section takes a security certificate if your IT department gives you one.

2. What it shows

Earth

• Day and night. The globe is lit by the Sun's real position, with a soft twilight between day and night.
• Atmosphere. A thin blue haze along the sunlit edge of the Earth, fading out on the night side.
• Clouds. Real cloud cover from NASA's VIIRS satellites, updated about every three hours.
• City lights. Cities light up on the night side.
• Aurora. A green glow on the night side where NOAA expects the northern and southern lights tonight, updated every half hour. A quiet night is a faint arc; a storm blooms.
• The Space Station. A small white-and-blue marker shows where the ISS is right now. In time-lapse you can watch it orbit.
• Earthquakes. Quakes of magnitude 4.5 or more from the past day show as red dots where they happened. Bigger dots mean stronger quakes, and recent ones gently pulse.

Other views

From the settings page you can switch to any of eleven views: Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, the Moon, the Sun, and the Night Sky.

• Night Sky shows the stars and constellations above you right now, with north at the top and east on the left, so it matches the sky if you hold it up overhead. The Moon appears in its real place and phase, and the five planets you can see by eye show as colored dots: white Venus, cream Jupiter, gold Saturn, red Mars and faint Mercury.
• The Moon looks the way it does from Earth tonight: its phase, its slow rock and nod (libration), and its size, which is about 14% larger at perigee than at apogee. It never spins, because the real one keeps the same face to us. Moon motion plays a whole month in ten minutes or in fifty seconds, so you can watch the phases, the wobble and the size change.
• The planets are lit by the Sun as it really falls on them today, with their own seasons and their own spin: Jupiter turns through its ten-hour day, and Uranus is lit almost pole-on. The Sun simply glows.

Clouds and city lights are on Earth only.

Time and weather card

Every 30 minutes (you can change this), the globe shows the time, the date, your city, the temperature and what it feels like, humidity and wind, then goes back to the globe after about 25 seconds. It finds your location from your internet connection, and uses °F in the US and °C elsewhere.

Tide card

If you live near a US coast, a tide card can pop up on a schedule (it's off until you turn it on). For about 20 seconds it shows the water level now, today's tide curve, the next high and low tide, and the Moon's phase. The data comes from the nearest NOAA tide station. If both cards are due at once, the weather card goes first.

3. The settings page

On a phone or computer on the same WiFi, open the globe's address (or http://planetaria.local).

At the top are two buttons, Cast a video and Demo tour. While a video is playing, a Now playing card appears under them with Back, Pause, Next and Stop. Below that are the settings. Make your changes and press Save at the bottom. Most changes apply in a few seconds. Ones marked RESTARTS restart the globe briefly.

Demo tour runs through everything in about two and a half minutes: Earth, every planet, a month of Moon phases, the Sun, a day of the night sky and the weather card. Then it goes back to your settings. Saving a setting ends it early.

4. Playing videos

Press Cast a video on the settings page. Videos play on the globe without sound, at about ten frames a second. Choose Fill the circle or Whole frame at the top.

• A link (computer, Chrome or Edge): paste a YouTube or Vimeo link, or a link to a video file, and press Play. A second Planetaria tab opens with the video. The first time, the browser warns that the connection isn't private, because the globe signs its own certificate: choose Advanced, then continue. When the browser asks to share the tab, choose Allow. Only the video goes to the globe, and the player's controls still work. Some videos aren't allowed to play on other sites; for those, share the tab instead.
• A video file: tap Choose a video and pick one from your phone or computer. It repeats until you stop it. Tap the circle to pause.
• Any other site (computer, Chrome or Edge): click Share a browser tab, pick the tab with your video, and play it there.

With a link or a shared tab, keep both Planetaria tabs open. Controls appear under the circle, and on the settings page's Now playing card on any phone on your WiFi.

Playlists

Under Playlist, add videos with + Videos and links with the link box, then press Play the playlist. At the end sets what happens after the last video: Stop, Repeat one or Repeat all. Tick Shuffle to mix the order, and Start playing when this page opens to have it start by itself. Tap a video to play from there, use ↑ to move it up and ✕ to remove it.

The playlist is saved in that browser, videos included. To keep it playing, leave the page open on a laptop, tablet or spare phone that stays awake. A playlist with links needs a computer, and asks once to share the second tab.

Good to know

• One device plays at a time. Starting a video from another device takes over.
• If the globe restarts or the WiFi drops, the page reconnects by itself, unless someone else has started a video in the meantime.
• Browsers won't start a video in a tab you've never looked at, so after restarting the browser, look at the Planetaria tab once. After that it plays in the background.
• While a video plays, the globe holds off its own downloads and updates.
• Videos go straight from your device to the globe and never leave your WiFi.
• Phones can play their own video files, but can't share another app or tab.

5. Startup clip

The globe can store a few seconds of video and play it every time it starts, with no phone or computer.

On the cast page, under Startup clip, choose a video, set where it starts and how long it lasts (2 to 10 seconds), choose Play once or Loop, and press Save to the globe. Saving takes 15 to 30 seconds. There's room for about 600 KB, so longer clips play at fewer frames a second: 5 seconds plays at 10 frames a second, 10 seconds at 5.

Play now plays it straight away and Delete removes it. Both are also on the settings page. A looping clip plays until you start a video or press Stop. Automatic updates keep the clip; reinstalling over USB erases it.

6. Moving to a new WiFi

There are four ways to bring back the setup screen:

1. Turn it off and on three times. Unplug it, plug it back in for about two seconds, and repeat three times. On the second time you'll see Setup recovery 2/3; on the third, the setup screen appears. Your saved networks are kept, so if you do this by accident it reconnects on its own a few minutes later. This works even if the button is sealed inside the case.
2. From the settings page: tap Forget WiFi & reopen setup at the bottom. This erases the saved networks.
3. Hold the BOOT button for about three seconds, if you can reach it. This also erases the saved networks.
4. It happens by itself if none of its saved networks can be found, for example after you move.

Then follow the steps in section 1.

7. What it does by itself

• Downloads new clouds about every three hours. If today's satellite image isn't complete yet, it uses the most recent full day.
• Updates the weather about every half hour.
• Keeps the clock right over the internet.
• Installs software updates, if that setting is on.
• Keeps running with the last clouds it has if the internet drops, and reconnects when it comes back.

8. Troubleshooting

The screen stays blank. Check the cable is pushed in. Try a wall charger rather than a computer or hub port, or a different cable.

I can't see the Planetaria-Setup network. Wait about 15 seconds after plugging it in. If it still isn't there, turn it off and on three times (section 6).

The setup page didn't open. While connected to Planetaria-Setup, open a browser and go to 192.168.4.1.

My WiFi isn't in the list, or it connects and then drops. The globe only uses 2.4 GHz WiFi on channels 1 to 11. In your router's settings, set the 2.4 GHz channel to 1, 6 or 11, and use WPA2 or WPA2/WPA3 security (not WPA3 only).

It says "No internet yet." It joined the WiFi but can't reach the internet. This is common on school, office and guest networks that need a sign-in page or block outside services. A home network or a phone hotspot always works.

It won't connect at school or work. These networks usually need a username. On the setup page, pick the network and a Username field appears. For a hidden network, tick This network needs a username.

At school or work it's online, but its address doesn't open. Many of these networks stop devices from reaching each other. Ask IT to allow the globe; they'll want its MAC address, shown on the settings page in the WiFi card and next to the version number. Open the settings page once at home (or on a phone hotspot) to read it.

There are no clouds. The first cloud image downloads a few minutes after start-up. Clouds need Live clouds on, an internet connection, and the Earth view.

There are no city lights. They only show on the night side of Earth, with City lights on.

The weather card never appears. Check Time & weather isn't set to Off. It also needs the internet.

The motion looks choppy, or the picture looks soft. That's the Smooth motion setting. On is smoothest, Off is sharpest, and Auto gives you the sharp picture at real speed and smooth motion in time-lapse.

Reinstalling over USB: which port? The globe can show up as two ports. Pick the one called USB JTAG/serial debug unit. Close the installer tab when you're done, or it keeps hold of the port.

9. Specifications

Privacy

To find your weather, the globe asks geojs.io for your approximate city from your internet address, then asks MET Norway for the forecast there. It also contacts NASA for clouds, the USGS for earthquakes, NOAA for tides, a time server, and cosnfx.store (the maker's server) for software updates and the Space Station's orbit. It never asks for an account and sends no personal data. Videos stay on your WiFi, playlists stay in the browser that made them, and a startup clip stays on the globe.

Credits: weather data from MET Norway; imagery courtesy NASA GIBS/ESDIS; planet textures © Solar System Scope (CC BY 4.0); star data from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue; constellation figures © Olaf Frohn / d3-celestial (BSD-3-Clause); ISS orbital elements from CelesTrak (relayed by cosnfx.store); earthquake data from the USGS; tide predictions from NOAA CO-OPS.