The Night Sky Is the Perfect Valentine’s Gift for That Sentimental Someone

It can be really hard to find someone special a Valentine's Day gift that feels personal and still unique without spending a ton of money.

The Night Sky is a company attempting to create just that kind of gift with their one-of-a-kind custom star maps, marking the significance of any date that you choose.

I stumbled upon the company on Instagram and was immediately enamored with the idea, so I reached out to the brand, who generously provided me with a discount code to try it out for myself.

The Product

The Night Sky creates custom-printed star maps that memorialize unforgettable moments by showing the alignment of the stars in the sky when they occurred. That may sound complicated, but all it requires from the customer is the date and location of the event, and their website does the rest of the work. Using just those two pieces of information, it generates a gorgeous chart showing the location of the stars on that very night. Once it's ready, you can have it printed, framed and sent to your door for $60, making a great statement piece for your wall—or a great gift to someone you care about.

The Experience

Prepping my star map from The Night Sky seemed a little intimidating at first, but once I jumped into the process, it couldn't be simpler.

The first page was focused on selecting the overall look and feel of the star map. From black to aquamarine, I had four background colors to choose from, but I went with a nice midnight blue. This page also gave me the option to print the map on a white background, and to toggle off constellations, a grid and whether the moon would show up in my chart. I decided to keep all of these in because I wanted every detail included.

For my date, I decided to commemorate a special anniversary between me and my beloved S.O., so from there, I just had to select the location to see the sky from, and the date of the special event you never want to forget. This page also gave me the option to add up to eight lines of special text (I just included our names) and adjust the latitude and time. Once I'd done that, I simply had to click a button and it generated a preview of my star map for me to review. I was pleased to see that they would do all of the heavy lifting in terms of actually creating my star map, and I entered my email address to have the preview sent to me (complete with a little starry watermark).

I looked it over a few times to ensure that everything was exactly how I'd like it (you can make any edits you need to if you find a mistake) before taking the plunge and ordering my poster. For $60, you get a beautiful 18 x 24 inch print on a matte poster, and for an additional $60 you can have the poster affixed to a foam board within a light grain wood, white or black frame.

Once you order, it'll typically take four to 10 business days to ship if you go with the free shipping options, but for $25 you can get it rushed to arrive within two to four business days—a good option for any last-minute V-Day shopping.

Once I'd placed my order, my poster arrived quickly and looked fabulous in its dark frame and exactly as I'd expected. The print was also high-quality (this definitely isn't something you can just pop out of your printer at home) and I was immediately excited to gift it to my special someone.

Bottom Line

The Night Sky's star maps make elegant and unique gifts, but they won't be within everyone's price range—particularly if you're also interested in a frame. If you're willing to shop around, I recommend checking out craft stores for frame deals before you shell out an additional $60 on a frame, effectively doubling the price of this great gift.

But what makes these star maps really special is that they're so versatile. Whether it celebrates an anniversary of a relationship, a birth or an achievement, everyone has moments in their lives they'll never want to forget, and they're made even more special when they're recognized by others. It's the type of gift that just might bring a tear to someone's eye, and it's definitely not too late to nab it before the most romantic day of the year.

Not sure to expect on Feb. 14? Click HERE for the expectations vs. reality of Valentine's Day.