Best Astronomy Apps for Stargazing

Get to know the best Astronomy Apps! The best stargazing app puts the universe in the palm of your hand, allowing you to map galaxies, stars and planets from virtually anywhere on Earth. Not only are they an essential part of any amateur astronomer’s toolkit. But they’re an excellent entry point for anyone interested in learning more about the universe and our place in it.

A great stargazing app can make the wonders of the night sky more accessible and understandable than almost any other resource and can familiarize you with the composition of the universe, which you can carry with you for a lifetime, significantly increasing your interest. in astronomy and astronomy.photography.

You don’t even have to go outside to use most stargazing apps as your phone’s GPS works with the app to identify constellations and other deep sky objects from wherever you are. For professional astronomers in the field, however. The best stargazing apps can be an invaluable tool when paired with the best telescopes or binoculars.

Star map apps have a few things in common – to locate a celestial object, just point your phone at a piece of the sky and the app will display the name and information of the object you are pointing at – but they vary in complexity, features, presentation and price.

Stellarium

Stellarium Mobile is a planetarium app that shows you exactly what you see when you look at the stars.

Just point your phone at the sky to identify stars, constellations, planets, comets, satellites (like the International Space Station) and other deep sky objects in the sky above you in real time in seconds.

This award-winning astronomy app has a minimalistic and easy-to-use user interface. Making it one of the best astronomy apps for adults and kids who want to explore the night sky.

App available on Google Play and Apple Store

Star Walk 2

Star Walk 2 is available in paid and free versions, the latter with ads and without features, is a night sky augmented reality experience designed to be experienced through a phone screen, not connected to an oscilloscope. Its simple interface makes it perfect for beginners.

Have the app see the sky through your phone’s camera and it will overlay the constellations in the direction you’re facing. You can also track the movement of planets and, if you pay for an upgrade. The movement of objects like the International Space Station and Starlink satellites. You can even turn off silent audio tracks at any time.

We love the “Visible Tonight” section, which guides you to the spectacular objects you can definitely see on any given night, with photos and links to Wikipedia pages for more information. Even though it’s more expensive, Star Walk 2 is a low-cost way to experience enhanced astronomy. And the free version is fully available if you can live with its limitations. 

App available on Google Play and Apple Store

PhotoPills 

Unleash your creative potential! Discover how easy it is to turn any scene of the Sun, Moon and Milky Way you can imagine into a real photo… Every time you pick up your camera, start capturing truly legendary photos!

Whether your passion is capturing beautiful landscapes, immortalizing the endless night sky, surprising brides and grooms on their happiest day… or traveling the world. PhotoPills will make you love exploring new artistic possibilities in ways never before possible. Ways of telling visual stories were not possible before.

App available on Google Play and Apple Store

Skyview

The Skyview app is $3 on iOS and $2 on Android, but there are free lite versions for both platforms. To use Skyview, just point your device at the sky and you can start identifying galaxies, stars, constellations, planets – even the International Space Station. The app has night mode and AR features so you can comfortably use it anytime.

The app’s Sky Path feature allows you to track objects in space to see their exact location at any date and time. In addition, Skyview has a time travel option to see what the sky was like in the past and what it will be like in the future.

App available on Google Play and Apple Store

SkyView Lite

I recently installed this astronomy app on my Android phone and the first thing that struck me was the augmented reality feature. Instead of putting a planetarium overlay on the screen. SkyView puts a translucent overlay over the phone’s camera view, which I have to say is pretty cool.

The constellation overlays and the presentation of descriptions are very well done. Expect the “lite” (free) version of the app to message you about updates very often.

App available on Google Play and Apple Store

NASA

No family space adventure is complete without the official free NASA app, which you can download for iOS or Android. While you can’t technically use the app for stargazing like the other apps on this list. You can still get up close and personal with space.

Check out a constantly updated photo gallery with thousands of images and watch live from NASA TV. Additionally, the app features video-on-demand from the agency and live streaming of the Earth Observation Experiment from the International Space Station in HD.

The app also keeps you up to date on NASA missions. Launch information, upcoming sightings, news and tweets from the agency.

App available on Google Play and Apple Store