diff --git a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.spec.ts b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.spec.ts
index b79dc1f..9966290 100644
--- a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.spec.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import { NavigationStore } from '../../shared/state/navigation.store';
 import { LinkBudget } from '../../shared/astro/jump-links';
 import { HudDisplay } from '../hud/hud-dock.component';
 import { GalaxySystemSceneComponent } from './galaxy-system-scene.component';
+import { galacticNormal } from './grid-plane';
 import { JumpLinkRenderer } from './jump-link-renderer';
 import { StarFieldRenderer } from './star-field-renderer';
 import { LabeledPoint, StarLabelOverlay } from './star-label-overlay';
@@ -429,9 +430,12 @@ describe('GalaxySystemSceneComponent camera-flight transitions', () => {
     it('sizes the rings by how far the frame reaches from the Sun, under either projection', async () => {
       const component = fixture.componentInstance as unknown as GridScene;
       const camera = engine.getCamera();
-      // Centred on a star 200 pc out, seen from 20 pc away: the rings have to reach it.
-      component.controls.target.set(200, 0, 0);
-      camera.position.set(200, 0, 20);
+      // Centred on a point 200 pc out along the galactic plane — where the rings are — seen from
+      // 20 pc above it. The rings have to reach it, and one of them has to cross the frame.
+      const normal = galacticNormal();
+      const centre = new THREE.Vector3(1, 0, 0).projectOnPlane(normal).normalize().multiplyScalar(200);
+      component.controls.target.copy(centre);
+      camera.position.copy(centre).addScaledVector(normal, 20);
       component.controls.update();
       await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
       const underPerspective = [...component.localGridRadii];
@@ -441,8 +445,8 @@ describe('GalaxySystemSceneComponent camera-flight transitions', () => {
       await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
 
       expect(underPerspective.at(-1)).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(200);
-      // And one of them has to cross the frame, which is a band about 19 pc either side of 200 pc:
-      // rings out to 220 at a step sized to all 220 are 180 and 200, both of them off screen.
+      // The frame is a band about 19 pc either side of 200 pc: rings out to 220 at a step sized to
+      // all 220 are 180 and 200, both of them off screen.
       const halfHeight = engine.visibleHalfHeight(20);
       expect(underPerspective.some((radius) => Math.abs(radius - 200) < halfHeight)).toBe(true);
       // The plan view's wheel moves the frame rather than the camera, so "how far out the camera
@@ -450,6 +454,22 @@ describe('GalaxySystemSceneComponent camera-flight transitions', () => {
       expect([...component.localGridRadii]).toEqual(underPerspective);
     });
 
+    it('measures the span in the plane the rings lie in, not through it', async () => {
+      const component = fixture.componentInstance as unknown as GridScene;
+      const camera = engine.getCamera();
+      // The same 200 pc out along the plane, but lifted 150 pc above it: 250 pc from the Sun as the
+      // crow flies, and still 200 pc out among the rings, which is the distance they are drawn at.
+      const normal = galacticNormal();
+      const centre = new THREE.Vector3(1, 0, 0).projectOnPlane(normal).normalize().multiplyScalar(200).addScaledVector(normal, 150);
+      component.controls.target.copy(centre);
+      camera.position.copy(centre).addScaledVector(normal, 20);
+      component.controls.update();
+      await advanceFrames(engine, 0.3);
+
+      const halfHeight = engine.visibleHalfHeight(20);
+      expect([...component.localGridRadii].some((radius) => Math.abs(radius - 200) < halfHeight)).toBe(true);
+    });
+
     it('leaves the rings alone while the grid is not drawn', async () => {
       const component = fixture.componentInstance as unknown as GridScene;
       const camera = engine.getCamera();
@@ -511,6 +531,15 @@ describe('GalaxySystemSceneComponent camera-flight transitions', () => {
       expect(component.ringLabelsInTheClear([rung], camera, [rightHand])).toEqual([]);
       // The same name hanging the other way leaves that space empty, and the rung with it.
       expect(component.ringLabelsInTheClear([rung], camera, [{ ...rightHand, side: 'left' }])).toEqual([rung]);
+
+      // And a rung to the left of a name keeps its place: "50 pc" is a third of a star name's
+      // width, so it ends well before the name starts, whatever the anchors' spacing suggests.
+      const centred = at(0, 0);
+      const spanning: LabeledPoint = { id: 8, name: 'Alnitak', side: 'right', x: centred.x, y: centred.y, z: centred.z };
+      const toTheLeft = at(-0.25, 0.02);
+      const clearRung: LabeledPoint = { id: 'ring-100', name: '100 pc', x: toTheLeft.x, y: toTheLeft.y, z: toTheLeft.z };
+
+      expect(component.ringLabelsInTheClear([clearRung], camera, [spanning])).toEqual([clearRung]);
     });
 
     it('places the ring labels with the star names rather than over them', async () => {
diff --git a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.ts b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.ts
index 5cf5050..15e7585 100644
--- a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/galaxy-system-scene.component.ts
@@ -79,6 +79,12 @@ const LABEL_EDGE_NDC = 0.7;
 const RING_LABEL_CLEARANCE_NDC = LABEL_MIN_SEPARATION_NDC / 2;
 /** How far right of its point a label's text reaches, in aspect-scaled NDC (~135px at 1440). */
 const LABEL_REACH_NDC = 0.3;
+/**
+ * The same for a ring label, which is shorter: "1.5 kpc" with "Survey edge" under it is the widest
+ * of them, about 100px at 1440. Measuring those as a star name's width rejected rungs a hand's
+ * breadth clear of it.
+ */
+const RING_LABEL_REACH_NDC = 0.23;
 /**
  * How long the range control has to be still before the graph is rebuilt at its value, since a drag
  * emits per pixel; and how often at most a view on the move gets a graph for its new drawn stars.
@@ -953,7 +959,7 @@ export class GalaxySystemSceneComponent implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
         !taken.some(
           (name) =>
             name.at.distanceTo(point) < RING_LABEL_CLEARANCE_NDC ||
-            (Math.abs(name.at.y - point.y) < RING_LABEL_CLEARANCE_NDC && name.from < point.x + LABEL_REACH_NDC && point.x < name.to)
+            (Math.abs(name.at.y - point.y) < RING_LABEL_CLEARANCE_NDC && name.from < point.x + RING_LABEL_REACH_NDC && point.x < name.to)
         )
       );
     });
@@ -985,7 +991,13 @@ export class GalaxySystemSceneComponent implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
       // does not contain the Sun — 20 pc rings for a view of a 19 pc band at 190 pc drew none of
       // them on screen, and the ladder of labels went with them.
       const frameRadiusPc = this.engine.visibleHalfHeight(orbitPc) * Math.hypot(1, this.viewportAspect());
-      const radii = distanceRings(Math.max(0, target.length() - frameRadiusPc), target.length() + orbitPc, LOCAL_GRID_RING_COUNT, SURVEY_EDGE_PC);
+      // Measured in the plane the rings lie in, not through it: a ring of radius r passes within
+      // `|r - p|` of the view's centre, where p is how far out the centre is *along the plane*. For
+      // a target above it the two differ by its height, which would put the band around a radius no
+      // ring has — and `ringLabels` compares its own in-plane bearing against the innermost.
+      const normal = galacticNormal();
+      const inPlanePc = target.clone().addScaledVector(normal, -target.dot(normal)).length();
+      const radii = distanceRings(Math.max(0, inPlanePc - frameRadiusPc), inPlanePc + orbitPc, LOCAL_GRID_RING_COUNT, SURVEY_EDGE_PC);
       if (radii.join() !== this.localGridRadii.join()) {
         this.setLocalGridRadii(radii);
       }
diff --git a/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.spec.ts b/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.spec.ts
index 9fda567..2913a6d 100644
--- a/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.spec.ts
@@ -58,6 +58,10 @@ describe('distanceRings', () => {
 
   it('leaves the callout out when it is past the last ring, or behind the first', () => {
     expect(distanceRings(0, 100, 5, 250)).toEqual([20, 40, 60, 80, 100]);
+    // Short of the survey edge by less than one step is not the rule — the last ring is: 245 pc
+    // overshoots to 260 and gets it, 235 pc stops at 240 and does not, on the same 20 pc step.
+    expect(distanceRings(0, 245, 5, 250)).toContain(250);
+    expect(distanceRings(0, 235, 5, 250)).not.toContain(250);
     expect(distanceRings(400, 440, 5, 250)).toEqual([400, 405, 410, 415, 420, 425, 430, 435, 440]);
   });
 
diff --git a/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.ts b/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.ts
index f5b1e54..96bb777 100644
--- a/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.ts
+++ b/src/app/shared/format/scale-bar.ts
@@ -19,16 +19,18 @@ export function roundLengthAtMost(value: number): number | null {
  * Rings across the span from `nearest` to `reach`, at a round step of about a `count`th of it,
  * plus `callout` where it falls between the first ring and the last: the grid's own radii are
  * round, and the one radius that means something in its own right is marked whether the step lands
- * on it or not. A frame short of it by less than one step still gets it, since the last ring
- * overshoots `reach`; one that stops well short does not.
+ * on it or not. A frame that stops short of it gets it only when the last ring — the first multiple
+ * of `step` at or past `reach` — is past it: reach 245 with a 20 pc step gets it, reach 235 does
+ * not, since its last ring is 240.
  *
  * Two numbers rather than one because these rings are centred on a fixed point — the Sun — and a
  * frame need not be. Looking at something 200 pc out from 20 pc away, what is on screen is a band
  * 200 pc wide at its narrowest and nowhere near the Sun; a step sized to the whole 220 puts every
  * ring off the frame. The span is what the frame covers, so the step is what it can resolve.
  *
- * Rounding the step down makes for `count` to `ceil(2.5 × count)` rings, and the callout can add
- * one: 5 to 14 for a count of 5.
+ * Rounding the step down, over a span that need not start at the Sun, makes for `count` to
+ * `ceil(2.5 × count) + 2` rings — `ceil(reach / step) - floor(nearest / step) + 1` — and the
+ * callout can add one: 5 to 16 for a count of 5.
  */
 export function distanceRings(nearest: number, reach: number, count: number, callout: number): number[] {
   const step = roundLengthAtMost((reach - nearest) / count);