What is it?:
This is a comprehensive map of the Star Wars galaxy based on the available published information. It contains all the planets, hyperspace lanes, sectors, and regions of the Galaxy Far, Far Away. It’s meant as a way to explore the galaxy, find points of interest, and discover more information about the movies and expanded universe.
A note on sectors: The sectors currently included come from the Star Wars: The Essential Atlas Online Companion. When maps of the sectors of the Deep Core, Core, and Colonies are published, those will be included.
Why I Made it:
I decided to make this map after finding some of the existing galaxy maps. W.R. van Hage’s map lead me to Modi’s map and the official Star Wars: The Essential Atlas. These are great resources and are extremely detailed but due to formatting can be clumsy to deal with. Even the vector PDF formats can be tricky to search and don’t include other information about the objects. I decided to use my experience with geographic information systems (GIS) to make an interactive version of the map where users could easily search for planets and objects would link to Wookieepedia or other resources.
How it Was Made:
I started making the map by using the Star Wars: The Essential Atlas as a reference and working in ArcGIS using AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator for supplemental work. I georeferenced scans of the maps using the standard grid system and began tracing elements from the individual maps. Elements of the map are represented differently; planets are represents as points, hyperspace lanes as polylines, and regions and sectors as polygons. Each object has a set of attributes including its name, location, and other information that make it possible to search the data.
Objects are represented based on how they appear in the Essential Atlas maps. Planets and hyperspace routes that appear on the galaxy-wide map are given highest priority, with regional and sector maps given lower priority and smaller locations like the Hapes Cluster given the lowest priority. This is to make the map easier to read when zoomed out.
Other versions of the map are either in a cartesian grid projection or an isometric projection. While the isometric projection is more visually interesting, it’s less accurate spatially and makes it more difficult to bring together data from other sources. I decided to use a cartesian grid for the simplicity and accuracy of how the data is displayed. For the ease of working with software scaled for terrestrial mapping, everything is scaled so that 1 parsec displays as 1 kilometer.
How to Use it:
Zooming: You can zoom in or out either by using the zoom arrows inset into the map or by scrolling like you would in Google Maps. In future releases zooming in and out will display more or fewer details to make the map easier to use.
Hover: Hovering over an object will give you basic information about it.
Click: Clicking on an object will give you more in depth information including a link to the Wookieepedia article.
Layers: You can turn layers on and off to filter the information you want to see. You can view any combination of the Planets, Hyperspace, Sectors, and Region layers by clicking the “Visible Layers” dialogue and toggling the layers you want to see.
Search: Click on the “Search the Galaxy” link for a searchable version. I know it’s not as good for browsing, but my next goal is to have a single combined map that works for everything.
How You Can Help:
The Star Wars galaxy map contains a lot of information and as much of the process of making it was as automated as possible. Additionally, not all the data was perfectly consistent between maps. If you see something that’s misspelled, has broken link, or is in the wrong place, let me know using the “Report a Problem” form on the contact page and I’ll do what I can to address it in a future release.
If you like the map or use it as a resource, please consider donating so that I can continue to update the map and maintain the website.
Map Credits:
Henry Bernberg designed and built the map and manages all the datasets involved. He’s a map, sci-fi, and beer nerd living in Philadelphia. His other projects can be seen at www.hbernberg.com
Dr. Kevin Wierman got the search function working. He has been an avid reader, gamer, viewer and occasionally participant in the Star Wars Extended Universe. His resume and projects are available at kwierman.github.io
Changelog:
V1.9 – 2019/12/29
Rise of Skywalker and minor charges. Big charges are in the works.
v1.8 – 2018/07/01
SOLO UPDATE: Added Savareen and Vandor from Solo: A Star Wars Story, as well as a few other missing ones.
v1.7.1 – 2018/4/22
Added a couple missing planets, fixed some typos and broken links.
v1.7 – 2017/12/18
THE LAST JEDI UPDATE: Added Ahch-To, Crait, and Cantonica and fixed a couple wrong and missing planets.
v1.6 – 2017/11/23
Massive Thanksgiving update. Added dozens of missing planets from Rogue One, Rebels, and The Clone Wars and corrected information on a few existing planets including the location of Scarif. I also updated the back end for better search results.
v1.5.2 – 2017/1/4
Added Eadu and other missing planets from Rogue One and fixed minor errors.
v1.5.1 – 2016/11/27
Added Jedha and Scarif from Rogue One and Lothal and other planets from Star Wars: Rebels and fixed minor errors.
v1.5.0 – 2016/8/21
Added missing planets, fixed some broken links and types.
Working search function is now available!
v1.0.0 – 2016/2/7
Planets are now coded by canon/legends status.
v0.1.0 – 2016/1/19
Added The Force Awakens planets, visual improvements, and added grid layer for easier reference.
v.0.0.4 – 2015/5/4
Updated for Star Wars day! Better aesthetics and dynamic labeling on the map itself. I’m working on a search function that should be live soon.
v. 0.0.3 – 2015/1/15
Scale dependent rendering is working! Items now pop in and out depending on how far you’re zoomed in to make the map less cluttered. I’ve made a few visual improvements as well, with more to come in the future.
v 0.0.2 – 2014/12/19
Since the map is getting some attention I’m going to be spending some time to get it fully functional. Right now my current plans are to focus on these areas:
– Scale dependent rendering: more planets appear as you zoom in further.
– Search bar: you’ll be able to type in the planet you’re looking for and go directly to it.
– Legends/Canon labels: See what planets are part of the new canon vs the Star Wars Legends label.
– Custom basemap: to give the map a bit more of a Star Wars feel.
v 0.0.1 – 2014/07/02
Initial release. All the layers are done. Symbology needs to be adjusted. Proper basemap needs to be made for the background. Scale dependent rendering and search function need to be set up on CartoDB.