The Hill / Fish star map

Moving around

• Rotate: drag with the left mouse button, or drag with one finger.
• Pan: drag with the right mouse button, or hold Shift while dragging.
• Zoom: scroll the mouse wheel, or pinch with two fingers.
• Fly to a star: double-click it, or pick it from the side panel.

Views

Fish's viewpoint looks from beyond Zeta Reticuli back toward the Sun, the angle Fish used to match Betty Hill's drawing. From the Sun shows the pattern as seen from our position. Top down looks straight down on the celestial equator plane. Overview frames the whole pattern, or the full 150 light-year sphere when all stars are shown.

Selecting a star

Click or tap any star. An amber ring marks it and the side panel shows its details: spectral type, brightness, distance, position, and its distances to other stars. For the 16 pattern stars the panel also covers known planets and companions, and the star's role in Fish's interpretation. Choose All stars at the top of the panel, or press Esc, to clear the selection. On a phone, tap the bar at the top of the panel to expand or collapse it.

Distances

Modern places the pattern stars using Hipparcos and Gaia parallaxes. Fish's 1969 catalog moves them to the distances Fish worked from, so you can watch how later measurements changed the pattern. The 150 light-year catalog stars always use modern distances.

Display options

• Labels shows star names. Overlapping labels are hidden automatically; zoom in to reveal more.
• Depth lines drop each pattern star to the grid plane so you can judge its height above or below it.
• Grid shows the celestial equator plane with rings every 10 light-years.
• Route lines show an approximate reconstruction of the map's solid and dashed lines. They are for orientation only.
• Auto-rotate slowly turns the view.
• All stars within 150 ly adds every catalog star within 150 light-years of the Sun, inside a faint boundary sphere. It is off by default.

Finding a star

Use the search box at the top of the side panel. Press / anywhere to jump to it.

• Start typing a star's name or catalog number. A list of matches appears and narrows as you type, with the matching text highlighted.
• Click or tap a name to select that star. The map flies to it, rings it, and shows its details.
• With the keyboard, use ↑ and ↓ to move through the list and Enter to choose. Esc closes the list, and a second Esc clears the box.
• Search covers all 16 pattern stars and all catalog stars within 150 light-years. Choosing a catalog star turns on the All stars within 150 ly layer automatically.
• Catalog numbers work with or without spaces, so HD 10700, hd10700, HIP 8102 and Gliese 86 all find their stars. Greek-letter names are spelled out, for example Alpha Centauri or Epsilon Eridani.

About the data

Pattern star positions come from J2000 coordinates with Hipparcos or Gaia DR3 distances, and 1969 values from the Gliese Catalogue as published in Astronomy magazine in December 1974. The 150 light-year layer uses the HYG Database v3.8, which combines the Hipparcos, Yale Bright Star and Gliese catalogs. HYG lists about 7,500 stars in this volume. It is complete for bright stars but misses many faint red dwarfs and brown dwarfs, so the true number of objects within 150 light-years is considerably higher. Star glow sizes are for visibility and are not to scale.

Offline use

The standalone edition of this app is a single HTML file. It needs no internet connection or installation and runs in any current browser with WebGL enabled.

Last updated: September 19, 2026

These Terms of Use govern your use of The Hill / Fish Star Map in 3D (the "Application"), published by Accretion Studios ("Accretion Studios," "we," "us"). By opening or using the Application you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Application.

1. License to use

Subject to these terms, Accretion Studios grants you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to view and use the Application for personal, educational and non-commercial purposes. Any other use, including commercial use, resale or inclusion in another product, requires prior written permission from Accretion Studios.

2. Ownership

The Application's design, original code, text, graphics, and the Accretion Studios name and logo are owned by Accretion Studios and protected by copyright and trademark law. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. Astronomical facts and measurements are not claimed as property of Accretion Studios. Third-party components and data remain the property of their owners and are provided under their own licenses, listed in section 9. Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under those licenses.

3. Restrictions

You agree not to remove or alter any copyright, trademark or license notice; not to use the Accretion Studios name or logo without permission; not to distribute modified versions of the Application in a way that suggests they are published or endorsed by Accretion Studios; and not to use the Application for any unlawful purpose.

4. Informational purpose only

The Application is an educational visualization. Star data is compiled from published catalogs and scientific literature and may contain errors, omissions or outdated values. Discussion of the Betty and Barney Hill account and Marjorie Fish's interpretation is presented for historical and educational interest and is not an endorsement of any claim. Do not rely on the Application for navigation, research conclusions, or any purpose where accuracy is critical. Verify important data against primary sources.

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The Application does not ask for, collect or transmit personal information. The standalone edition makes no network requests. If you use a hosted edition, the hosting service may collect standard technical data under its own privacy policy.

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TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, ACCRETION STUDIOS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, PROFITS OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE APPLICATION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of the above may not apply to you.

8. Changes and termination

Accretion Studios may update the Application or these terms at any time. Continued use after a change means you accept the revised terms. Your license ends automatically if you breach these terms, and you must then stop using the Application.

9. Third-party components and data

three.js (r128) 3D library, used under the MIT License:

The MIT License

Copyright © 2010-2021 three.js authors

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

HYG Database v3.8 by David Nash (astronexus), licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). The star catalog data in this Application is a filtered subset (stars within 150 light-years, converted to light-years and reformatted) of the HYG Database and is shared under the same license. That license, not these Terms, governs your use of that data.

Pattern star values draw on the Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars (1969), the Hipparcos catalogue (ESA), Gaia DR3 (ESA), the ARI Database for Nearby Stars (Heidelberg), and published exoplanet discovery papers.

10. General

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