Terms of Service

1. About these Terms

Astro Corner is an astronomy-focused online community and planning platform operated under the Astro Corner name. In these Terms, “Astro Corner”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to the operator of the Astro Corner service, and “you” refers to the person using it.

By creating an account or continuing to use Astro Corner after being notified of materially updated Terms, you agree to these Terms. Our Privacy Policy explains how personal information is handled and is not incorporated as a consent mechanism.

2. Eligibility and age

Astro Corner is currently intended only for people aged 18 or over. You must provide an accurate date of birth during registration and must not create or use an account if you do not meet the minimum age requirement.

You may not use Astro Corner if your access has been lawfully suspended or terminated, or if using the service would breach applicable law.

3. Accounts and sign-in methods

You are responsible for keeping your account secure, for information submitted through it, and for promptly telling us if you believe it has been compromised. Usernames are designed to be permanent; display names and profile information can be changed subject to platform rules.

You may sign in with an Astro Corner password or supported third-party identity providers such as Google, Microsoft, Apple or Discord. Linking a provider authorises Astro Corner to use the identity information needed for authentication; it does not give Astro Corner access to your provider password, inbox, cloud files, private messages or unrelated account content.

Two-factor authentication, email verification, security confirmations, rate limits and session controls may be required to protect accounts and higher-risk actions.

4. Acceptable use

You must use Astro Corner lawfully and in a way that respects other users and the integrity of the service. You must not use Astro Corner to:

• post, send, solicit or facilitate unlawful content or activity;
• harass, threaten, stalk, intimidate or deliberately target another person;
• impersonate another person or organisation, misrepresent official status, or fraudulently obtain access;
• publish another person’s private or precise location information without an appropriate lawful basis or permission;
• upload malware, attempt unauthorised access, probe security controls, interfere with the service, evade rate limits or abuse automated interfaces;
• spam, deceive users, manipulate engagement, or use automated accounts in a way not expressly permitted by Astro Corner;
• infringe copyright, database rights, trade marks, privacy rights or other legal rights;
• use Astro Corner to promote scams, deceptive commercial schemes, prohibited gambling activity, cryptocurrency/NFT promotion, or other categories expressly excluded by platform policy.

Astro Corner may publish additional Community Guidelines. Those guidelines form part of the rules for using the service where they are clearly identified as such.

5. Posts, comments, messages, media and other user content

You retain ownership of content you create and upload. You grant Astro Corner a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, transform solely for technical delivery (for example image resizing), display and transmit that content as necessary to operate the service according to the visibility and sharing choices you select.

This licence lasts while the content is stored by Astro Corner and ends when the content is deleted, except where copies must remain temporarily in backups, security records, moderation evidence, legal records, or where another durable record must be preserved consistently with our Privacy Policy and applicable law.

You must have the rights needed to upload or share content. Do not upload confidential material, personal data about another person, copyrighted works, or precise private-site coordinates unless you are entitled to do so.

Private and restricted-visibility content is not treated as public merely because Astro Corner must technically process it to provide the service.

6. Communities, projects, events and collaboration

Community owners, managers and moderators receive tools to manage their spaces, but their actions remain subject to Astro Corner’s platform-wide rules. A Community role is not an Astro Corner staff role unless the account is separately marked as official.

Projects, observing plans, events, target lists, journals, guides and collaborative records may contain information supplied by multiple users. Contributors are responsible for what they add. Community or project owners may set additional participation rules that do not conflict with these Terms.

Event organisers are responsible for the accuracy and safety of their event information. Astro Corner does not supervise physical meetings, travel, observatory access or other offline activity. Exercise appropriate judgement before attending an event or visiting an observing location.

7. Trading Post classifieds

The Trading Post allows adult Astro Corner members to publish private or commercial astronomy-equipment classifieds and to communicate about those listings. Astro Corner provides the listing, reputation, moderation and communication infrastructure only. Astro Corner is not a buyer, seller, payment processor, escrow provider, courier, insurer, equipment authenticator or party to the transaction.

Payments and delivery take place outside Astro Corner and are arranged directly between the users involved. You are responsible for checking the identity and reliability of the other party, the accuracy and legality of a listing, the condition and suitability of goods, and the payment, collection, shipping, insurance, tax, warranty and consumer-law arrangements that apply to your transaction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Astro Corner is not responsible for the completion, payment, delivery, quality, safety, legality, description or outcome of a Trading Post transaction. Nothing in these Terms excludes rights or liabilities that cannot legally be excluded.

Listings must describe goods honestly and must not advertise unlawful, stolen, counterfeit, dangerous or prohibited items. Commercial sellers must not falsely present themselves as verified vendors. A Verified Vendor badge means Astro Corner has reviewed the account/business identity information available to it; it is not an endorsement, warranty or guarantee of any listing, product or transaction.

Do not publish private contact, precise home/collection address, banking/payment credentials, identity-document details, passwords or security codes in a Trading Post listing. Use the listing-specific private conversation for contact/collection information only when it is genuinely required. Users should carry out their own due diligence and choose payment, collection and shipping methods appropriate to the transaction and the protections they require. Astro Corner does not guarantee that any external payment method, reputation score, Vendor badge, phone call or other check makes a transaction safe.

Trading Post conversations are kept separate from ordinary private messages but use the same messaging infrastructure. Because they form part of a marketplace transaction record, authorised Administrators or Super Admins may review conversations that are specifically linked to a Trading Post listing when investigating reports, safety concerns or disputes. Staff access to this scoped evidence is audit logged. Ordinary private conversations are not exposed by the Trading Post review tool.

Feedback is limited to completed Trading Post transactions recorded through the platform. Feedback must reflect the author’s genuine transaction experience and must not be used for retaliation, harassment, coercion or manipulation. Astro Corner may hide or restore feedback and preserve a moderation record where reasonably necessary.

8. Safety, reporting and moderation

Astro Corner provides reporting, blocking, moderation, appeal and account-restriction tools. We may review reports, remove or restrict content, limit features, suspend accounts, preserve relevant evidence, or take other proportionate action where reasonably necessary to enforce these Terms, protect users or the service, or comply with law.

Moderation decisions may consider context, severity, repetition, account history, credible safety risks and applicable legal obligations. Where an appeal route is available, you may use it in good faith. Abuse of reporting or appeal systems may itself be restricted.

Nothing in these Terms requires Astro Corner to host content indefinitely or prevents us from taking urgent action where we reasonably believe there is an immediate safety, security or legal risk.

9. Astronomy data, forecasts, alerts and planning tools

Astro Corner provides astronomy-oriented information such as object data, visibility calculations, weather forecasts, Moon and twilight information, astronomical events, observing plans, alerts, plate-solving results, user-entered equipment details and community reports.

These features are for general informational and planning purposes. Forecasts, ephemerides, pass predictions, visibility calculations, coordinates, object metadata and user reports can be incomplete, delayed or wrong. You remain responsible for checking safety-critical conditions, site access, local rules, weather, travel and equipment operation.

Do not use Astro Corner as the sole source for aviation, navigation, emergency, medical, safety-of-life or other high-risk decisions.

10. Observing locations and location safety

Personal observing locations can contain precise coordinates. Astro Corner provides privacy controls and encourages users to keep home or otherwise sensitive coordinates private. Public observing-site pages are intended for locations that are appropriate to identify publicly.

If you contribute a public observing site or community report, ensure the information is lawful to publish and does not expose a private residence, restricted facility, vulnerable person or unsafe access route.

11. Third-party services and external data

Astro Corner may interact with third-party services for identity sign-in, weather, astronomical data, plate solving, email delivery and infrastructure. Current integrations can include Google, Microsoft, Apple and Discord for sign-in; Open-Meteo for forecast data; Astrometry.net for optional plate solving; and astronomy information sourced from NASA GSFC, NASA/JPL, NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, the U.S. Naval Observatory and the International Meteor Organization.

Those services may have their own terms and privacy notices. External availability, data quality, licensing and service terms can change, and Astro Corner may replace a provider or temporarily disable an integration where reasonably necessary.

Links to external websites do not imply endorsement. Where external data is shown, its source and any relevant attribution should be treated as part of that material.

12. Intellectual property in Astro Corner

Except for user content and third-party material, the Astro Corner service, software, visual identity, original interface elements, documentation and platform content are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws. You may use the service through the interfaces we provide, but may not copy, sell, reverse engineer, scrape at disruptive scale, or commercially exploit protected Astro Corner material except where law permits or we give permission.

13. Service changes and availability

We may add, change, suspend or retire features, providers or integrations. We aim to preserve user data and give reasonable notice where a change materially affects users, but uninterrupted or error-free availability is not guaranteed. Maintenance, security incidents, provider outages and circumstances outside our reasonable control may affect access.

14. Account closure and termination

You may use the account and data controls provided by Astro Corner to request deletion or other supported lifecycle actions. Some information may need to be retained or anonymised for security, legal, moderation, accounting, dispute-resolution or integrity reasons as described in the Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or terminate access for serious or repeated breaches, legal requirements, security threats, fraud, or risks to users or the platform. Where appropriate, we will provide a reason and any available review or appeal route.

15. Responsibility and liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where doing so would be unlawful, including liability that cannot be excluded under applicable consumer law.

Subject to that, Astro Corner is provided on an “as available” basis. We are not responsible for losses caused by information or content supplied by users, decisions made solely from non-safety-critical astronomy data, third-party outages, or events outside our reasonable control where we have taken reasonable care.

If you use Astro Corner in connection with a business, club or organisation, you remain responsible for that organisation’s own legal, safeguarding, insurance, access, event and data-protection obligations.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms to reflect service changes, safety requirements, legal obligations or clearer wording. The effective version is shown at the top of this page. Where a change materially affects existing users, Astro Corner may provide an in-service notice and may ask users to accept the updated Terms before continuing to use affected features.

17. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the law applicable to Astro Corner’s place of establishment in the United Kingdom, subject to any mandatory consumer protections that apply where you live. Nothing in these Terms removes rights that cannot legally be waived.