Constellation
a living star map on every new tab

What you see on every new tab

Constellation is the theme Ambient New Tab opens with. It fills the New Tab page with 320 glowing points on a dark background, and any two points that drift close enough are joined by a thin line, so loose webs of constellations keep forming, stretching and breaking apart as the field moves.

The points sit at different depths. Near ones are larger and brighter, far ones smaller, dimmer and bluer, and the whole field flows like slow weather around a few invisible whirlpools.

• 320 stars in depth: Points are spread through a thick slab of space and drawn in perspective, so the furthest are under half the size and brightness of the nearest.
• Lines that show motion: A line turns blue while its two stars are moving toward each other, amber while they are moving apart, and violet when the gap holds steady.
• Speed in colour: A slow star is deep blue; the faster it moves, the closer it gets to white.
• Three whirlpools: Invisible vortices wander across the screen, and each one slowly weakens, stops and starts turning the other way, every 15 to 30 seconds or so.
• Personal space: Stars gently push apart when they get very close, so they spread out instead of clumping, and anything that drifts off one edge comes back in on the opposite one.

The star physics runs in JavaScript every frame: flow, whirlpools, cursor push and spacing for all 320 points. WebGL then draws the points as soft round glows and the links as thin coloured lines, blended so overlaps add up.

What it reacts to

• Mouse: Stars within about a fifth of the screen height of your cursor are pushed outward, and the camera slides a little the other way, so near stars shift more than far ones.
• Music: With music sync on, bass speeds the flow, strengthens the whirlpools and swells the stars to nearly three times their size; mids brighten the lines, treble brightens the points, and a kick pushes everything outward from the centre.
• Sound: A warm, slow pad, and soft bells when stars link up or part; the stars flash with each bell. Free, like the theme. Sound starts soft on a new install, and you can turn it down or off right on the New Tab.
• Night: In Auto mode an indigo veil fades in around sunset and lifts around sunrise; the Day/Night button in the Themes panel can force either.

Free or Pro?Free

Constellation is one of the five free themes, with Constellation, Marble, Synthwave, Soap Bubble Sky and Paper Drop, and it stays free. The clock, date and search box are free too. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, or $59 once for Pro Forever, and adds every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as we release it.

How to get it

1. Add Ambient New Tab to Chrome.
2. Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
3. Pick Constellation. Done.

Questions

Is Constellation free?

Yes. Constellation, Marble, Synthwave, Soap Bubble Sky and Paper Drop are free forever, with the clock, date and search box. No account, no time limit.

Why are some lines blue and others amber?

The colour is a kind of Doppler shift. For every linked pair the theme measures whether the two stars are closing or separating. Closing pairs tint blue, separating pairs tint amber, and pairs holding their distance stay violet. The faster the change, the stronger the tint.

Do the stars return to their places after I move the mouse?

No. There are no fixed places. A star pushed away by the cursor keeps drifting with the flow and slows down over a few seconds. Take the cursor off the page and the push stops, the camera eases back to centre, and the whirlpools carry on as before.

Why do some stars look like they are behind others?

They are. Each star has a depth that wanders slowly between near and far, and links are only drawn between stars that are close in depth as well as on screen. That is why the web reads as several faint layers rather than one flat net.

Does it work on my phone?

No. It's a desktop browser extension for Chrome on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. If you're reading this on a phone, send yourself the link.

More themes

See every theme →