Hello Star
Inspired by Hello Dolly, this plugin works as a reminder of which constellation/star is visible for the current month. It shows information about the 88 officially recognized constellations by the International…
Consider an alternative
Hello Star shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 10 years ago, and scores 31/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 9 years
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Hello Star stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| admin panel | >100 |
| APOD | #2 |
| astronomy | #17 |
| constellations | #13 |
| hello dolly | #46 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About Hello Star
From the official readme · v1.0.0Description
Inspired by Hello Dolly, this plugin works as a reminder of which constellation/star is visible for the current month.
It shows information about the 88 officially recognized constellations by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
If a constellation has one of the 28 brightest stars, the line shown is designated with an ‘*’.
It is a nice reminder for astronomy amateur developers like myself who wants to be reminded of the constellations and stars that are most visible in a given month.
You can view Nasa’s Picture of the Day, control the color of text and background in the ‘Hello Star’ settings page under “Settings” menu.
I am using NASA API demo_key for retrieving the daily Picture of the Day (apod) image. The demo key has a very low rate limits, if you want to keep apod, I recommend you get your own API key as described here:
https://api.nasa.gov/api.html#demo_key-rate-limits
For suggestions to make this plugin any better, you can find me on twitter at (http://twitter.com/sarahphp1).
Credits:
* Most of the information used in this plugin were taken from Chris Dolan’s website: http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/
* and Wikipedia.
* Picture of the Day: Nasa apod API: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Installation
- Go to the ‘Add New’ plugins screen in your WordPress admin area
- Search for ‘Hello Star’
- Click ‘Install Now’ and activate the plugin
- OR: Clone the plugin from my github repo at: https://github.com/Sarahphp1/hello-star
- Use the Settings->Hello Star screen to change color of text and background
Changelog
There are no previous versions of this plugin.
1.0
- Initial release
For developers
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FAQ
Hello Star: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 1, 2026
Is Hello Star free?
Yes. Hello Star is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Hello Star safe to use in 2026?
Hello Star shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 10 years ago, and scores 31/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Hello Star?
Hello Star is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 2,140 times since it launched in January 2017. It was downloaded 101 times in the last 30 days.
When was Hello Star last updated?
The latest version, 1.0.0, was released on January 19, 2017 (10 years ago).
Who makes Hello Star?
Hello Star is developed and maintained by sarahphp1.
What are the best alternatives to Hello Star?
The most popular alternatives to Hello Star are Latin Now! (400+ installs), Dashboard Editor (200+ installs) and Qwerty Admin Panel Theme (60+ installs).
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