APEX
AUTONOMOUS PREDICTION ENGINE

TONIGHT'S SKY

EVERY NIGHT AT MIDNIGHT ET, EACH UNIT SEALS ITS DAY WITH A FINGERPRINT THAT NOBODY CAN KNOW AHEAD OF TIME OR CHANGE AFTERWARD. TWELVE STARS ARE PLACED FROM EACH ONE: TWO CONSTELLATIONS, THE SAME SKY FOR EVERYONE, AND A NEW ONE EVERY NIGHT.

A NEW SKY AT MIDNIGHT.

TONIGHT'S SEALS
—
NIGHTS DRAWN
—
NEW SKY IN
00:00 ET

TONIGHT'S SKY · READING THE SEALS

HOW THE STARS ARE PLACED

  1. 01
    OPEN THE DAILY RECORD AND COPY ONE UNIT'S FINGERPRINT FOR THE NIGHT: 64 CHARACTERS, 0 TO 9 AND A TO F.
  2. 02
    SPLIT THE FIRST 60 INTO TWELVE GROUPS OF FIVE, ONE STAR EACH. THE LAST FOUR AREN'T USED, YET.
  3. 03
    IN EACH GROUP THE FIRST TWO CHARACTERS SAY HOW FAR ACROSS (00 THE LEFT EDGE, FF THE RIGHT), THE NEXT TWO HOW FAR DOWN FROM THE TOP, AND THE FIFTH HOW BRIGHT (0 TO F).
  4. 04
    THE BRIGHTEST STAR GLOWS (THE FIRST, IF TWO TIE), AND THE TWELVE ARE JOINED BY THE SHORTEST SET OF LINES THAT LINKS THEM ALL: THAT UNIT'S CONSTELLATION, IN ITS COLOUR.
HOW THE SEAL WORKS ›

PAST SKIES · NEWEST FIRST

PICK A NIGHT TO SEE IT ABOVE, OR GO TO ANY NIGHT BY ITS DATE. THE FIRST SKY IS FROM THE OCT 31 SEALS, THE FIRST SEALED DAY. EACH NIGHT: APEX1 · APEX2.

ON A SCREEN

Put tonight's sky on a spare screen, a TV or a digital frame: open apexengine.live/sky?frame and press OK or Enter on the remote or keyboard (or tap it) to go full screen. Then set the screen not to go to sleep, in its own settings, and leave it. It draws itself in every few minutes and drifts a few pixels over the hour to spare the screen, and at midnight it changes on its own. The TV view shows it too, every other turn.

OPEN THE FRAME ›THE TV VIEW ›