Night Sky stargazing app is one of the many common stargazing apps on the App Store today, but the best stargazing apps they are the ones who find an audience, whether they are experienced astronomers or not.
As a relative newcomer to the field, Night Sky captures the wonder of discovery and the feeling of how small we are on our blue planet, but also almost completely removes the inky sky blurring and much of the work involved.
Night Sky App: Specifications
Operating system: iOS, no Android version
Device Compatibility: iPad, Mac and Apple TV (not tested)
Tested on: iPhone 13 Pro Max
Price: Free/Paid $5.99/month, $39.99/year
Its main appeal is the ability to point your device at the sky (we tested it on an iPhone) to reveal a dizzying array of constellations and galaxies arrayed before you. Clever additions are also welcome, like the ability to do the same indoors with an impressive Augmented Reality (AR) overlay, or to set notifications for things like the best times to search the ISS.
It’s all included in the free version too, but the premium version is a great way to dig a little deeper and search a little further. The service, dubbed Night Sky+, offers a number of extra features and removes what appears to be an arbitrary limit on the number of stars available for stargazing. The latter feature is a shame, but the iCandi development has to make money somehow, we suppose.
Night Sky app review
Night Sky app: prices and subscription
- $5.99 a month, $39.99 a year
- Many features are non-essential, albeit impressive
- Some stars are only included in Night Sky+
As mentioned above, Night Sky offers a paid subscription service but it is also available for free. There’s also a generous one-month free trial to help you make up your mind.
While many apps see their free versions unnecessarily hampered by the paid service’s busy features, generous is the word we’d use to describe the basic offering here, with one caveat.
Without spending a dime, users can open the app and look skyward for data including stars, planets, constellations, and more. AR mode is also included, which projects the same data onto the ceiling.
Many of the additional features are less essential, but the big omission is the full 1.7 billion star count. This means that users of the free version will not get the full experience and therefore have gaps in their knowledge if they use the app solely for educational purposes.
Some features like Sky Tours can be found in the free version, however, allowing for a curated look at the cosmos. These tours can be customized by users and there is an extensive library, but again only in the paid version.
Night Sky App: User Interface
- Easy to use even for complete beginners
- Some AR integrations can be complicated
- The “Plus” features are mostly separate
The initial setup process for Night Sky is simple, as the app calibrates to your location and asks for the relevant permissions. The ease with which he drags the galaxy across the screen is mesmerizing.
Look up and you will see the night sky (the real one), covered with a huge number of celestial bodies, including constellations with illustrations traced over them. It’s a little overwhelming for new users, but it’s easy to filter what you’re looking for with a handy menu next to the overlay. You can also change viewing filters to help with light pollution that might otherwise make it hard to discern what you’re looking at.
Portrait and landscape orientations are supported, but you don’t need to hold your phone up for long periods. This is because the app works in 360 degrees, so pointing down will show you alternative constellations that would be visible on the other side of the planet. This is useful for observers who want to see what has just dropped below the horizon or will appear later in the night.
A tap on a topic will center it in the frame and clicking the ‘i’ icon next to it will provide a lengthy description of it. Take a look at the constellation Giraffe, Camelopardalis, below.
One of our favorite parts of Night Sky is how it presents its features in a tab at the bottom of the screen. This means it’s easy to see where your local planetarium is or jump into a saved Sky Tag (Night Sky’s way of keeping track of a “favorite” item), while Night Sky+’s premium features are somewhat isolated .
It’s a nice way to make sure you always know what you have available and keep tabs on what you might be missing without convoluted app descriptions.
Although much of Night Sky is based on a reliable Augmented Reality (AR) feature, some parts work a little better than others. It’s likely to get better over time, but it naturally suffers from object clipping when you ask it to do more complex things like AR planetary portals.
Night Sky app: main features
- Clear display with numerous viewing options
- AR planetary portals are a fantastic idea
- Tours are a great way to learn
And what about those AR features? Aside from the clear, easy-to-use interface, there’s a lot to like about the way Night Sky uses your device’s cameras to heighten immersion.
It does this in a few ways other than the main sky overlay view. Another is mapping to the ceiling, which is certainly more ideal in larger, boxier rooms than our sample here suggests.
We also love AR Grand Orrery, which overlays a full map of the solar system onto the surface of your choice. It may remain static and you can interact with it, but nothing shows you the majesty of the stars like setting it to 1000x speed and watching the planets rotate, the stars move and the cosmos swirl. Though you’ll have to pay for Night Sky+ for that.
Perhaps the most innovative use of AR in Night Sky is what the app calls AR Planetary Portals. Again, it’s a “premium” feature, but it’s worth trying out with the free trial.
AR Planetary Portals opens the viewfinder and invites users to tap and select a planet or moon within our solar system. This way you can “walk through” that portal to view constellation and astronomy data from a new perspective.
It’s a great idea and while it doesn’t work perfectly (the portal can open anywhere but ideally you’ll want a lot of space to “walk through” it), it’s a great way to add a new immersive level.
The app can also recommend the best times to stargaze at your location and suggest when you’ll see things like the ISS flying past.
Night Sky “Tours” offer guided views of famous constellations and celestial bodies based on specific choices or your location. You can pause them at any time with Night Sky’s “editors” that offer curated options for star types, moons, and anything else you can think of.
You can record your own, although we ran into an odd bug where a static image got stuck on the tour interface until we closed the app and restarted it.
One of the best features is the inclusion of “Connected Stargazing” sessions, which let you share the night sky with a friend or family member in real time.
Night Sky App: Astrophotography features
- Some UI quirks
- Free for all users
- Integrated into the iOS camera roll
Astrophotography is included for all users in Night Sky and lets you attach your photos and notes to anything you see through a Sky Tag (you only get a couple, so you’ll need to upgrade).
The astrophotography feature set is competent enough, with focus, noise reduction, and ISO adjustment included, but the interface is pretty cluttered. All buttons are lined up at the bottom of the screen, which can make it easier to tap the wrong one.
On the plus side, you can make sure the settings automatically adjust to your subject, but there’s also an option to change it manually. It’s a great way to make the feature useful for both casual and more experienced users.
It’s a solid option, but of course your mileage will vary depending on your phone. We tested on an iPhone 13 Pro Max and found it just as capable as using the stock camera, but without the additional need for any astrophotography know-how.
Do I need to purchase/download the Night Sky app?
If you’re a newcomer looking to get a better sense of our place in the galaxy, Night Sky is a great choice. It’s an incredibly easy-to-use app that has a whole host of features, and while keeping some information behind a paywall is a bit disappointing, it at least offers great value for your money with clever AR features like the Grand Planetarium and Portals Planetariums. Its free version, we’ve discovered, is more generous than most, so new users should take advantage of it, provided they’re on an Apple device.
If the Night Sky app isn’t for you
There are many stargazing apps out there. If you are looking for an option that connects to your telescope, Stellarium Plus Might be worth a look. When we reviewed the Stellarium Plus, we found that it had a comprehensive database and connected easily to most telescopes to enhance their sky-gazing experience.
You may also want to take a look SkySafari 6 Prowhich offers audio tours and pronunciation guides, but these unique add-on features also come at a fairly steep cost, so might only be of interest to serious hobbyists and intermediate watchers.
Want to check out the best stargazing apps? Check out our guide to the best stargazing apps where we’ve tested, reviewed, and rated the best stargazing apps out there.
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