Good evening, everyone,
We’re opening up presales for the Night Sky Passport(this was discussed in the WhatsApp group for those who are hearing this the first time).
We expect to have the copies in about 10-15 days. It will tentatively cost around ₹300, and we’re planning a ₹50 discount for kids below 12. This is in line with the club’s goal of keeping astronomy accessible and encouraging kids to get into it early.
We’ve also factored in a club component of about ₹80 per book towards making the stamps and stickers that come with this. Like always, none of us are doing this to make money. Whatever comes out of this goes right back into community initiatives like these.
We’re also collecting responses now to figure out how many copies to print in the first batch, so please fill it in if you’re interested. This closes by 2026-04-26T18:29:00Z . Knowing the number will also help us finalise the cost with the vendor.
Please register here - Events - Chennai Astronomy Club
Please read this before you purchase:
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This is the first time we’re trying something like this. So yes, there will be issues. We still wanted to get this out early because summer vacations are ending, and it felt like the right time for kids to start using this.
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We’ll only do the next print run in early 2027. This takes a lot of effort, and we want to collect long-term feedback before printing more.
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Our main goal has been to avoid wrong information. Over the last 3–4 days, a bunch of us have been going through the content carefully to make sure it’s factually correct. Missing content is okay, but wrong content isn’t. That said, there might still be a few minor issues here and there.
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The book will have ~230 pages. It starts with section-wise star charts showing the sky at 9 PM from Chennai to help you get oriented.
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All 88 IAU constellations get 2 pages each:
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Left page: description, space for notes, and stamp placeholders
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Right page: star chart
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There’s a short intro section explaining basic terms like constellations, stars, asterisms, etc. It’s just to get you started, not meant to be exhaustive.
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At the end, there are extra pages for notes and for collecting event-specific stamps.
Who should get this:
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If you like collecting things, you should get this.
I’m very much one of those people, and honestly this whole thing scratches that itch for me
We’ll be making some really fun stamps and stickers that we can collect and show off. -
If you’ve been wanting to get into astronomy but haven’t found the motivation, this might help.
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If your kids are interested in astronomy and you’re not sure how to get them started, this can act as a simple and fun entry point. They can always look up more details online.
Who should not get this:
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If you’re expecting a proper star atlas, this isn’t that. This is a stamp book (at least for this edition).
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If you want detailed, in-depth information about astronomy, again, this isn’t meant for that.
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If you’re not into interactive or activity-based things and would rather just read, this might not work for you.
That’s it for now. We’re honestly just excited to get this out and see how people use it. Looking forward to seeing your passports fill up over time 
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