Now users can experience the beauty of space like never before. Here are our top 6 picks for astronomy apps that are free! SkyView allows users to point their device to the sky and instantly identify stars, constellations, and satellites. The app provides endless information on the world above and even provides notifications for upcoming stargazing events. The app Star Walk does not only have a beautiful interface, but is extremely user friendly.
The apps effortless design allows users to explore stars, comets, and constellations all by pointing their device at the sky. The app Star Chart provides user a view into the the visible universe at the tip of their fingers. Night Sky allows users to quickly identify stars, constellations, satellites and planets as well as weather conditions for the coming night. On top of this information, Night Sky has a community that provides suggestions for the best stargazing locations around the world!
I have also included the publisher of the app, category, and description of the application so you can get an idea of what to expect before downloading it. I have not included the price of the app because this may change , but have included whether it is currently free or not. Whether you use these resources to assist you in stargazing at the cottage, or a quick observation session with your telescope, these astronomy apps can improve your overall experience.
They can help you better prepare for the weather, and find out when key astronomical events are taking place. Due to the evolving nature of mobile apps and the sheer number of new astronomy apps popping up each day, I have not used all of these astronomy apps personally.
Consider this post to be more of a round-up of the most popular apps, with good reviews and ratings throughout the astronomy community. The goal of this post is not to rate the apps against each other, but to provide a useful resource for amateur astronomy enthusiasts. Without further ado, here is a list in no particular order of the best astronomy apps for your iPhone or Android phone. Identify stars, constellations, planets, comets, satellites such as the ISS , and other deep sky objects in real-time in the sky above you in just a few seconds, just by pointing the phone at the sky.
This award-winning astronomy application has an easy-to-use and minimalist user interface, that makes it one of the best astronomical applications for adults and children who want to explore the night sky.
Stellarium is an extremely popular planetarium app for mobile phones. I also enjoy the desktop and web versions when planning my astrophotography imaging sessions at home. I have good things about this polar alignment tool for equatorial telescope mount owners. I have been using a similar app called Polar Finder listed further down the post for many years on my Samsung Galaxy S10 Android phone. It has the largest database of any astronomy app, includes every solar system object ever discovered, offers unparalleled accuracy, flawless telescope control, Augmented Reality AR mode, and provides the very best experience under the stars when you depend on it.
I downloaded SkySafari 5 Pro with plans to use the functionality with my ASIair camera control device and telescope mount. I must admit, I have put this task off for a long time and have not tried it out yet. Discover how to easily turn any Sun, Moon and Milky Way scene you imagine into a real picture… and start shooting truly legendary photos every time you pick up the camera!
Here is a recent video shared by the PhotoPills team about how to use the app to help plan a Milky Way photography session. Updated hourly. Clear Outside has been my go-to resource for the most accurate and sometimes depressing astronomy weather forecast for the night. Using the amazing astronomy data produced by the Canadian Meteorological Center, NOAA, and more, Astrospheric quickly produces a highly accurate hour forecast for any location in the continental United States or Canada.
This one was new to me, and so far, I absolutely love it. You can dig deep into the weather map layers to get a better idea of the type of cloud cover in your location. As stated in the description, this app is currently only useful to North American users. Weather forecasts can be requested for any place on Earth easily and comfortably. I recently installed meteoblue for a realistic weather forecast to help me better prepare for upcoming stargazing sessions. I enjoy this weather app over a more traditional one such as the weather network.
Where this app really shines is with the satellite imagery. You can watch developing cloud patterns and movement. Highly recommended! Long exposure produces beautiful photos in low light and unique Astronomy modes capture the stars, Northern Lights Aurora and more! It will become your interactive guide to the night sky, following your every movement in real-time and allowing you to explore over , celestial bodies with extensive information. Simply point your iPhone, iPad, or iPod at the sky to identify stars, constellations, satellites, and more.
This app is especially good for kids, because it augments its 3D space model with video clips that explain different celestial concepts. Miss the last Super Moon? Set this one to calendar mode, and you'll never miss another important celestial event in your viewing area. This one started out as a project at Google, and then became open source.
If you don't know where to start, point it at the sky and have it direct you toward something cool. You can use this like a regular planetarium app, or, if you have a telescope, you can use it in conjunction and have it guide your towards objects of interest. This works like the reverse of the other apps — instead of pointing your phone at the sky and having the app tell you what's there, you tell it what you want to see, and it'll tell you where to look.
This one is only for the iPad, but the bigger screen works for it: Touch anything you see, and a pop-up will display with more information. Not exactly for stars per se, but this is a fun one to have if you're looking to keep track of the International Space Station; it'll ring an alarm when either the International Space Station or the Chinese space station Tiangong 2 are in view, and you can run and see them with the naked eye.
It promises to be the most realistic possible view of the skies, showing the scenery above just as you would see them with the naked eye. You can even "land" on other planets and see what the sky looks like from there. Add this graphic to your Pinterest boards to save the best stargazing apps. PIN IT. Product Reviews.
Home Ideas. United States. You can locate and label your favorite constellations and planets, and even track satellites as they traverse the sky above, and access lore and stats about the stars and planets you select, including stories from different cultures. Zoom in, and you can access HD photos of nebulae and galaxies, though some such as the Pleiades could do with an update. Pointing your phone at the sky will reveal the objects you can see, while the app also easily connects to most telescopes.
Overall, this is one of the better astronomy apps out there. Available as paid-for and free versions, the latter displaying ads and lacking features, Star Walk 2 is an augmented reality experience for the night sky, designed to be experienced through the phone screen rather than by connecting to a scope.
It's easy interface makes it well-suited to beginners. You can also track the movement of planets and, if you pay for the upgrade, objects such as the International space Station and the Starlink satellites. There's even a calm audio track you can turn off any time you want. Even at its most expensive, Star Walk 2 is a low-cost way to experience augmented astronomy, and the free version is perfectly usable if you can live with its limitations.
This easy to use and low-cost app there's a free version has been around for a long time, but received many upgrades along the way. Its interactive star map recognises night-sky options and constellations, showing their paths when they cross the centre of the screen.
This is where the app falls down slightly - you need to be very precise in your positioning to get the information you need. We also found the AR screen to be extremely dark, even for viewing at night, but the graphics are clear and the illustrations of constellations are attractive. You can upgrade by buying packs of extra stars and satellites, and even a music package.
Telescope integration is limited, but there's enough detail and functionality on offer here to make it attractive to amateur astronomers. This in no way makes Star Rover a poor app, however - , stars is still plenty, and it contains all the most interesting and brightest ones. It offers similar functionality to other apps, giving an augmented view of the night sky with constellations marked with illustrations, and tracks for the planets and other notable objects.
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