Last reviewed: September 8, 2026
This page describes the information the current NightSkyLens site receives, where the site sends it, and which parts of the site use local browser storage. Services and configuration can change, so this page should be reviewed when those changes are made.
Who we are and where the site runs
NightSkyLens is available at https://nightskylens.com and is hosted on Vercel. The hosting service may process the technical information needed to deliver a page or asset under its own policies.
Contact messages
The contact form asks for an email address and a message; a name is optional. The message is limited to 2 - 4,000 characters and the optional name to 160 characters. When a visitor starts from a gallery image, that selected image and page are carried with the note so the question remains identifiable.
When the server configuration is available, a contact submission is written to the NightSkyLens Supabase database and a notification is sent through Brevo to the configured site-owner address. The stored submission contains the submitted name, email, message, page and image context, plus the referring page and browser user-agent supplied with the request. A database storage error is logged and does not by itself prevent the email notification. The contact form sets newsletter opt-in to false and does not enroll a sender in the newsletter.
Do not include information in a contact message that you do not want sent to the site owner or stored with the submission.
Newsletter
Newsletter signup is separate from the contact form. When configured, the site records the submitted email, source, consent text, subscription state, and request metadata in Supabase and uses Brevo for the newsletter workflow. That workflow can include confirmation and unsubscribe links. A contact message is not newsletter consent.
First-party analytics
For public page views, NightSkyLens records the visited path, the referring page when provided (up to 1,000 characters), a one-way hash of the requesting IP address, the browser user-agent, coarse device information, approximate country, region, and city when supplied by the hosting platform, and classifications used to identify bots and the site owner. The analytics beacon does not send page-view events from private editor pages. A hashed network identifier is still a network-derived identifier; hashing does not make the analytics record completely anonymous.
Private editor storage
The private editor uses a session cookie limited to its private pages, with a 12-hour session lifetime. Private draft recovery copies, sharing-pack snippets, and the manual distribution log can also be kept in the editor's browser local storage so an interrupted edit or owner review can continue in that browser. These are editor functions and are not public visitor accounts.
Sky map and other external resources
The interactive Sky Map loads its pinned d3-celestial JavaScript, CSS, and map data assets from jsDelivr at a fixed upstream revision. The map keeps a useful target-list and gallery fallback if those assets are unavailable. Articles can also link to or show source-specific charts, diagrams, data, and reference imagery. The credit or caption shown beside a third-party asset identifies its source; following an external link or using an external resource is subject to that provider's own policies.
Cookies and local browser data
The public contact and gallery flows do not create visitor accounts or comment cookies. The private editor session cookie and recovery storage described above are used only for the editor. The browser may also keep ordinary session state used to restore a reader's position while navigating an article.
Retention and questions
The site does not promise a particular retention period or automatic deletion schedule for contact, newsletter, analytics, or private editor records. Storage and provider settings determine which records exist and for how long. If you have a question about a submission or subscription record, use the contact page and identify the address or page involved so it can be reviewed against the configured systems.
For the consolidated image-use terms, see rights and licensing.