drag to orbit · scroll or drag the scale on the right to zoom from a planet out to the whole universe · tap anything to fly there · press / to search
controls
The real universe at real sizes, drawn only in ASCII. Denser characters mean more light.
look
drag
turn round it
scroll · + -
zoom, a moon to the universe
pinch
zoom, a moon to the universe
two fingers
slide it across the screen
double-tap
centre it again
right-drag
let go and pan freely
W A S D R F
fly freely
‹ angle ›
next camera angle
go
click
fly there and lock on
tap
fly there and lock on
/ · search
names or numbers (M31)
scale
pick a size to travel to
next stop ›
the green button: on with the tour
☾ halo
on tours: the Halo flies it
space · play
pause or play
H · ⌂ home
back to Earth
[ ]
previous / next stop
more
ride · C K
ride the Halo · cockpit · still
ship
ride the Halo, or its tour
V Y T
detail · travel · time
G L M
glow · labels · music
Z P I
screensaver · photo · info
esc
close, then let go
settings
detail, music, time, photo
Fast things like orbits are sped up, and a few tiny things are drawn magnified (the ruler shows their true size). The Halo and its drone Pip are made up. The Sun is drawn warm; its real light is white. The music is made live in your browser.
· made by GCD · the code on GitHub · your settings, location and progress stay on your device
what's new
0.10.21 Oct 2026The Halo tour, at the tour's pace
The Halo tour now spends about 40 s at each place, like the normal tour.
The Halo arrives straight into its move: through Saturn's rings, through a star's corona, weaving through a nebula. Now and then it arrives on a job instead.
The camera takes turns: wide shots of the place, and close-ups with the Halo a third of the screen and the place big behind it.
The Halo's blue marker stays hidden during the Halo tour.
0.10.11 Oct 2026Smoother launches
Staging plays in real time: the booster's engines shut down in steps and the ship pulls away gently, instead of jumping.
The camera stays with the booster all the way home, through the flip, the burn back and the catch, with no jumps, and the playback speeds up and slows down smoothly.
Drag during a launch to look round the rocket from any angle. The camera follows the flight again 10 s after you let go, or when you press play.
The music stays under the rocket's roar, and the camera shakes less.
When the interface fades, the caption fades too and comes back briefly for each new step.
0.10.030 Sep 2026Launches you can hear, under real skies
Pick a rocket and the camera comes down from space onto the pad in one smooth move, with no jumps or odd angles all the way to orbit.
Hear and feel the launch: a deep rumble and the crackle of the exhaust arriving at the speed of sound, the camera shaking near the pad, a billowing ground cloud and a smoke column drifting in the wind.
Real weather over the pads: clouds, wind and haze as they are there, with cloud shadows moving over the ground.
Starbase as it looks now, from aerial photos taken in January 2026.
Starman's Roadster rebuilt: the real car's shape and size, with Starman at the wheel.
0.9.1230 Sep 2026The Halo tour shows the places
On the Halo tour every shot frames the place first, through a long lens, with the Halo small in front of it.
Close to a planet or a star the place becomes a horizon under the ship.
A click on the Halo during the tour keeps these shots.
The Crab Nebula and other places no longer fade away while you ride with the Halo.
0.9.1130 Sep 2026A face for shared links
A link to gcdatlas now shows a picture when you paste it into a chat or a post: M87*, the black hole, drawn in ASCII.
Pictures you save in photo mode are signed gcdatlas.com.
Help and what's new say who made it, and link to the code on GitHub.
0.9.930 Sep 2026Pip takes the stage
Pip, the Halo's drone, is out for most of every stay, moving smoothly: it plays peekaboo, rides beside you, sits on the bow and chases sparks.
For the weapons test the Halo makes an attack run, nose on the target, and Pip unfolds into a railgun on its needle.
The Halo flies a move made for each place: through Saturn's Cassini Division, low over the Great Red Spot, through a star's corona.
The engines have a short blue flame that grows with speed.
The angle line sits right under the name, and a "Halo tour" switch beside tours lets the Halo fly the tour.
0.9.829 Sep 2026SpaceX launches and Starman's Roadster
Starman and his Tesla Roadster, where they really are right now, 90 million km out on their orbit round the Sun.
Starship, Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Crew Dragon stand on their real pads. Pick one and watch it launch by day: the Starship booster flies back and is caught by its tower.
The ground round the launch sites is real: aerial photos, satellite images, the land's height and the buildings of Starbase, Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg.
One smooth camera from start to finish, about 3 minutes a flight. Want every second? Press "real speed" in the caption.
Real SpaceX launches play live at their scheduled time. Now and then a replay lifts off while you look at Earth.
0.9.629 Sep 2026Ride the Halo, and its tour
Riding the Halo, the camera now keeps the place it is visiting in view behind the ship, and glides from angle to angle.
Like it still? The camera switch next to travel (or K) holds one angle, the place still in view.
New: the Halo tour. Press "halo tour" to ride along while the Halo flies a tour's stops, with a big camera move at every place.
Riding along from far away no longer loses the ship on the way in.
In the screensaver, the angle line sits under the name of the place.
0.9.429 Sep 2026Softer music, sharper planets, a fold cannon
The music's bass is much softer, above all in the calm songs, and the tunes are a little louder.
The planets look sharper up close: real features at their real places, richer colour and a clear line between day and night.
The Halo's weapons test has a new gun that builds itself from embers, with three new shots, all made up.
The Halo's engines leave a trail you can see from afar, so you can tell it is moving.
What's new (this list) is one tap away, beside the ? button. Help is shorter.
On a phone, the ship button opens a small menu: ride along, cockpit, or show the marker.
Detail is set to auto: sharp screens with time to spare get the finest characters.
0.9.328 Sep 2026The Halo roams
The Halo stays about two minutes at each place and roams round it in slow passes, then hops on.
A slower teleport: the heart powers up, the hull burns away into embers and forms again on arrival.
A new scan: a hologram ring sweeps the body pole to pole and names real features with real numbers.
Pip, the drone, has two eyes and faces that show how it feels, and helps round the ship.
Search finds places by catalogue number, such as M31 or NGC 1976.
0.9.228 Sep 2026A song list
The radio plays a fixed list of songs, the same every time, picked by ear.
Pick any song from the list in settings, under now playing.
Moods instead of styles: mix, calm, beats and groove.
Three new styles: ambient piano, downtempo and soft synthwave.
0.9.128 Sep 2026The Halo's new look
A fine shield line round the hull that flares near strong gravity, following the real escape speed.
A new teleport: the hull burns away cell by cell in an ember wind and forms again.
Pip, a little eye-pod drone, comes out of the belly bay on probe jobs.
A calmer light speed, with no white glare over the ship.
0.9.027 Sep 2026New places, a new atlas
New places: Vesta, Bennu, Mimas with its giant crater, three planets of other stars, Gaia BH3, T Coronae Borealis, the Lagoon Nebula and M13.
The atlas shows every choice at once: sort by kind, distance, size or name, twelve kinds, and "not seen yet".
Solar System distances are measured from the Sun, so they always climb.
Your collection and badges live at the bottom of the atlas, and every badge does something.
0.8.827 Sep 2026A random tour
A random tour picks 12 places from the whole atlas, a new mix each time, places you have not seen first.
Its trips stay smooth, and it deals 12 more at the last stop.
Fixes to a few angles that looked empty on a phone.
0.8.727 Sep 2026Smoother Halo flights
Fixed four mistakes in the Halo's route: sharp turns at light speed, a pause mid-glide and jerky arrivals.
0.8.627 Sep 2026Calmer ASCII
Bright areas use fewer, steadier characters, so they no longer look like confetti.
Brightness rises smoothly instead of in bands.
0.8.526 Sep 2026Say where it goes
A green button beside the name says where it goes: "next stop · Moon ›" or "back to the tour".
The angle arrows sit on the angle line, and every tap counts.
Esc closes whatever is open first.
0.8.426 Sep 2026Home, gestures, free camera
A home button flies back to Earth from anywhere (also H or the logo).
On a phone, a pinch zooms exactly with your fingers and two fingers slide the object on screen.
After you let go of an object, the view keeps moving with it, and a pill points the way back.
0.8.326 Sep 2026Quick wins
The sound button shows in soft red while no music plays.
TRAPPIST-1e is a temperate world with sea and ice, not lava.
Voyager 1 moves along its real path and counts down to one light-day from Earth.
0.8.226 Sep 2026The Halo, redrawn
The Halo follows the owner's concept art: a trident with a needle bow, two crescent arms and a star-heart.
A showcase of the ship: open the site with ?showcase=halo.
0.8.126 Sep 2026Comets and meteors
Hale-Bopp, NEOWISE, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, 3I/ATLAS and 67P on their real orbits, with tails that point away from the Sun.
Shoemaker-Levy 9 hitting Jupiter, the Kreutz sungrazers, the Perseids and the Leonids.
Now and then a comet or meteor zips past on a tour.
0.8.026 Sep 2026The Halo at work
The Halo always flies somewhere: short hops at light speed, long ones by folding space.
Jobs on the way past: scans, a probe, weapons tests, skims, a tractor beam (all made up).
0.7.926 Sep 2026Earth at night
Earth's night side shows the real city lights seen from space.
Weather seen from space: cyclones, thunderstorms with lightning, dust and fire seasons (sped up).
0.7.826 Sep 2026Planets against the Sun
Every planet has an angle from its night side looking back at the Sun.
The Solar System view zooms in until the Sun fills the screen.
Betelgeuse up close: a boiling surface of giant cells.
0.7.725 Sep 2026True order of size
In the Solar System view the Sun is always the biggest and the planets keep their true order of size.
A trip is always one smooth flight.
0.7.625 Sep 2026Music right away
The music starts as soon as the browser allows it.
0.7.525 Sep 202616 new places
JWST icons, strange worlds, wanderers and oddities, and two new tours.
Long trips pass something real on the way.
0.7.425 Sep 2026Ride along
Ride along with the Halo, in the chase view or from its cockpit.
A warm, boiling Sun, and the Pillars of Creation in JWST colours.
0.7.325 Sep 2026Play and pause
Play and pause for the camera; a picked object loops through its angles.
Black hole shadows are pitch black.
0.7.225 Sep 2026Subtle black holes
Black holes are shown by their own physics again: bent light, the photon ring and colour shifts.
0.7.125 Sep 2026Phones
A phone layout: a dock of big buttons, the info as a card and the scale behind a chip.
The interface fades when you leave it alone.
0.7.025 Sep 2026A big update
Nebulae, galaxies, extreme stars and a black hole zoo.
Your own sky tonight, Earth's story, live satellites and launches.
Screensaver, photo mode, today's discovery, a collection log and the radio.
0.6.0Sep 2026Tours
Themed tours with captions, size compare, a time machine and share links.
0.5.0Sep 2026A home of its own
The atlas moves to gcdatlas.vercel.app, with search, settings, the scale ladder and music.
0.1.0Sep 2026The beginning
The ASCII universe: real stars, planets from JPL orbits and a seamless zoom from Earth to the edge of the observable universe.