Privacy Policy

Meridian - Deep Sky Catalog Effective Date: February 16, 2026 Developer: Mac Observatory

Overview

Meridian is designed with privacy as a core principle. Your imaging data stays on your Mac. We do not collect, transmit, or store any personal information, usage analytics, or telemetry.

Data That Stays on Your Device

All of the following data is stored locally on your Mac and is never transmitted to Mac Observatory or any third party:

  • Imaging archive metadata — FITS and XISF header data (target names, coordinates, exposure settings, timestamps) read from your files during scanning
  • Session and catalog records — target identification, session grouping, integration totals, and equipment history stored in a local database
  • Thumbnails — generated preview images cached in your Application Support folder
  • App preferences — settings such as observer location, plate solver configuration, and onboarding state stored in local preferences
  • Wish list and notes — future imaging targets and any notes you create

Meridian operates in read-only mode against your imaging archive. It never modifies, moves, renames, or deletes any of your files.

Location Data

Meridian requests your location solely to calculate astronomical object visibility from your observing site. Location data is used on-device only for altitude, rise/set, and transit time calculations. Your location is never transmitted to any server or third party. You can manually enter observing site coordinates instead of using your current location.

Network Connections

Meridian makes the following network requests, all initiated by you:

  • Aladin Lite sky map tiles — when you open the My Sky view, map imagery is loaded from the Centre de Donnees astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS). These requests include only the sky coordinates being viewed, not any personal information.
  • Astrometry.net plate solving — if you enable cloud plate solving, frame data (sky coordinates, star positions, and field of view) is sent to the Astrometry.net API to identify the pointing of your images. No personal information is included.

No network connection is required to use Meridian. All core features work offline.

Data We Do Not Collect

  • No personal information
  • No account or sign-in required
  • No usage analytics or telemetry
  • No crash reporting to external services
  • No advertising or ad identifiers
  • No tracking across apps or websites
  • No data shared with third parties

Third-Party Services

Meridian contains no third-party SDKs, analytics frameworks, or advertising libraries. It is built entirely with Apple system frameworks.

The optional network features described above (Aladin Lite and Astrometry.net) are governed by their own privacy policies:

App Sandbox

Meridian runs in the macOS App Sandbox. It can only access folders you explicitly grant permission to via the system folder picker. File access is managed through security-scoped bookmarks and can be revoked at any time by removing a watched folder in Settings.

Children's Privacy

Meridian does not knowingly collect any information from children under the age of 13.

Changes to This Policy

If we update this privacy policy, the revised version will be posted at https://www.macobservatory.com/meridian-privacy-policy with an updated effective date.

Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy, contact us at:

Email: support@macobservatory.com Web: https://www.macobservatory.com