About Us

Picture the Stars makes personalised star maps, moon maps, location maps and jewellery, calculated from real astronomical data for a chosen date, time and place. The company was founded in Manchester in 2018 by Ricky Bendall and has since made more than 50,000 personalised maps. Every order is designed, printed and dispatched from our workshop in Failsworth, Manchester.

Customers use our maps to mark weddings, anniversaries, births and the nights they met. Hearing those stories is still the best part of the job.

Founded in Manchester: 2018
Personalised maps made: 50,000+
From 3,500+ Trustpilot reviews: 4.7
Canon imagePROGRAF printer: PRO-2600
Weekday orders before 3:30pm: Same day

How We Work

Calculated. Every map starts with your date, time and place. The stars are calculated from star catalogue data, corrected for the Earth's slow wobble and nod, and checked against independent professional astronomy software.

Checked. Before anything is printed, a person opens your file and checks your sky, your text and the layout. The finished print is checked again under a daylight lamp.

Printed and sent. Prints are made on a Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-2600 on 285gsm museum-grade art card, framed in-house when ordered, and sent with Royal Mail tracked delivery. The full process is on our How We Print page, and the astronomy on our science pages.

Accuracy Comes First

We don't treat astronomy as just decoration. Every star map and moon map we create starts with real astronomical data using your date, time, and location. Calculated carefully to reflect the sky as it actually appeared.

Our work is shaped by observation, not shortcuts. We care about visibility, perspective, and accuracy, because those details are what turn a meaningful moment into something genuinely personal.
This approach is slower. It's more deliberate. But it's the reason our pieces feel considered, balanced, and true to the moment they represent.

Marin Lukas, our astronomical developer, shares some of the photographs we have taken of the stars and the Moon, using long-exposure cameras and telescopic lenses.

Images captured by Marin Lukas - Astronomical Developer at Picture the Stars

THE SCIENCE OF HOW IT WORKS CREATE STAR MAP

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The People Behind Picture the Stars

Picture the Stars is a small Manchester business. These are the people behind your map.

Ricky Bendall

Founder and Creative Director

Ricky Bendall is the founder and creative director of Picture the Stars. Ricky started the company in Manchester in 2018, processing real astronomical data into personalised star maps, and in 2020 founded Picture Made Prints Ltd, which makes them. Ricky leads new product development and brings a lifelong interest in art and astronomy to every design.

More about Ricky

Marin Lukas

Astronomical Developer

Marin Lukas works with Picture the Stars as astronomical developer. Marin joined in 2020 and pioneered the Culmination Moon Map Method™, which renders each moon map at the moment the Moon is highest in the customer's sky, so the Moon shown is one that was visible from their chosen place. Marin works on how our star and moon maps are calculated, and photographs the night sky and the Moon using long-exposure equipment.

Ivana Biskupovic

Website Developer

Ivana Biskupovic worked with Picture the Stars as a website developer, building and developing the original Picture the Stars website on WordPress.

Anna A

Website Design and User Experience

Anna A leads the website design and user experience at Picture the Stars, planning, iterating and proposing the site's layouts for phones, tablets and desktops.

Mubashir Ahmad

Writer

Mubashir Ahmad wrote many of the Picture The Stars gift guides and night sky articles, and enjoys writing about the zodiac and the more mythological side of our technical maps.

More about Mubashir