At present, many individuals are engaged in stargazing for spending their time in a pleasurable manner, and for this, they use astronomy apps. It is also possible for the children to experience the attraction of the night sky these days. After pointing the device in the direction of the sky, these amazing apps will open up a real-time space consisting of planets, stars, satellites, and so forth.
The good thing is that it will be possible to download these astounding astronomy apps onto your iOS or Android-powered gadgets without any problem at all. It will be possible for you to witness everything happening in the heavens by simply tapping on the mobile screen. It is as simple as that!
Below, we have mentioned some wonderful astronomy apps that will allow you to remain updated with all the activities that are happening in the sky.
1. Stellarium PLUS
The benefit of using this particular app is that it happens to be an open-source, and polished software. However, its dataset is tightly reduced once it is offline. Although this open-source and free Stellarium software is being used by lots of amateur astronomers at present on their computers, the lesser-known application of the developer is also quite intriguing.
You will receive the typical amplified reality experience with the help of a free version of this app along with overlaid stars, planets, constellations, and satellites. On the other hand, the Stellarium PLUS version, which happens to be a separate application costing £11.99 will help to increase the database significantly for the pleasure of the viewer.
Stellarium PLUS is actually intended for telescope owners and it has the ability to regulate a scope by making use of Orion SynScan, CelestronNexStar, plus LX200 serial protocols. Besides this, it also simulates the actual appearance of an object via a particular telescope.
At present, the amplified database consists of more than 10,000 asteroids, as well as the innovative Gaia DR2 catalog comprising more than 1.7 billion stars. It will be possible for you to zoom in on any detailed image of the celestial objects just like the desktop version, plus it will simulate the atmosphere and landscapes of our planet to depict genuine sunrise, sunset, plus atmospheric refraction.
The Stellarium PLUS app will be able to provide telescope control, as well as a huge database of stars with 22nd magnitude as well.
2. GoSkyWatch Planetarium
The main benefits of using this popular astronomy app are touchless navigation and effortless portrait-to-landscape transition. However, some significant drawbacks of this app are that it does not come with any free version and it only consists of stars that we can see with our naked eyes.
The GoSkyWatch Planetarium app is suitable for the casual and naked-eye stargazers out there and will provide a fantastic touchless experience as well as a lustrous design. It happens to be amongst the most effective transitions from landscape to portrait and vice versa. You simply need to swivel your smartphone and the sky will become absolutely still (the majority of the astronomy apps will be refreshing or resetting).
It likewise features an exclusive touchless navigation pattern that helps to make everything quite simple out there. There is no need for the user to touch any object and this app comes with a compact-sized target circle in the middle of the screen. While moving the smartphone, the planets and stars are going to pass via that circle naturally. While doing that, some simple info pops up within the circle consisting of the name, how far it is from the earth in terms of light-years, constellation, and so on.
In case it happens to be a planet, its small image will appear briefly. Interestingly, it likewise comes with an option known as “Pluto is a planet”.
3. SkySafari
Have you ever thought about whether it will be possible for your mobile device to show you stars and planets although they might not be noticeable to the naked eye? This happened to be the case several years back; however, right now, SkySafari happens to be a fantastic application intended for stargazing. This amazing astronomy app provides us with some innovative features like Galaxy view. This particular feature offers an interesting 3-D visualization as well as the location of the different stars and moons.
Features
• Make use of this effective stargazing app to look at more than 200 galaxies and over 120,000 stars.
• Check the appearance of the sky in 500 BC by using night sky simulation.
• You simply need to point the device camera in the direction of the sky, and SkySafari will provide you with locations of constellations and stars.
• Make use of night vision for safeguarding your eyesight even after it has become dark.
4. Sky Guide
The good thing about this particular astronomy app is that it provides a free basic version which is quite impressive as well. However, it provides some misleading aurora effects.
The most recent iteration of this app happens to be Version X which sees plenty of fantastic astronomy news plus upgraded visualizations. The night sky has become more realistic than before consisting of some fantastically rendered twilight, dusk, and pre-dawn light while it takes on a more practical and precise appearance than before.
However, we are not quite sanguine about whether it will be useful to point a mobile device at the sky during the daytime for getting information about the sun only. Nonetheless, it will be possible to switch on and off the option named “stars fade during day”. The application also features some fanciful and
fine aurora effects that will appear on the application while it is pointed north and south once it has become dark.
Furthermore, the “featured” section of this application comprises a blend of outstanding features and news presented by Dr. Jenifer Millard along with a comprehensive cosmic calendar plus weather forecast and a simple and elegant design. The number of celestial objects, satellites, stars, plus zoom power will be increased significantly by the available upgrades although the basic free version featuring 100 sky objects, 24 constellations, plus ISS tracking will be adequate for the casual stargazers.
The Sky Guide app is quite simple, as well as slick featuring remarkable astronomy features and a news section. The free version will be ideal for casual stargazing.
5. Universe2go
The most notable highlights of this particular astronomy app are that it is accurate and comes with a free version as well. Besides this, it features outstanding audio narration. However, it comes with a drawback which is that larger smartphones will not be able to fit in the viewer.
In case you want to get the best results, it will be advisable for you to use it along with an innovative Universe2go star viewer that will cost you £79. You simply need to insert a normal-sized smartphone into the casing while looking through the viewer for viewing constellation boundaries and star names overlaid onto the genuine night sky.
The good thing is that audio narration is going to start once the virtual target is aimed at a particular object. While using the app on a tablet or phone, it will be possible to put it into planetarium mode even without the viewer listening to the identical audio.
6. International Space Station
This particular stargazing app which is available for free on Android and iOS is not going to show you any star technically; however, it will be feasible for you to check out the ISS itself and the planets. The app will track the location where the in-space lab is presently situated at any particular time above the earth.
The app will ask you to plug in your present location (it is the only permission that it will ask for) and it will inform you regarding how frequently you can expect to view the International Space Station in the sky. For instance, it will be possible for the inhabitants of Kentucky to view the International Space Station every night between approximately 7:58 PM and 9:38 PM for approximately 30 seconds to 90 seconds. Here, we like to mention that the International Space Station is traveling at a speed of approximately 17,000 miles every hour.
Besides this, this app will also track how long until the International Space Station will be visible over your present location once again, and also for the length of time that it will be perceptible. It appears that the International Space Station will be noticeable in a particular location once or twice every day over the course of one week.
7. Night Sky
The positive thing regarding this astronomy app mentioned here is that it can boast of having a clean interface and provides innovative features as well. However, you will need to subscribe monthly or annually for gaining access to the most useful features.
It will be a sensible idea to share the sky at night. The revolutionary “connected stargazing” feature of the Night Sky app happens to be a shared stargazing session that enables the members to have a FaceTime Audio call between their mobile devices for adding planets, stars, satellites, and constellations in real-time to the session. However, it is only the Premium subscribers of Night Sky who will be able to access this particular feature by shelling out £4.99 every month.
However, the good thing is that you need not spend any money for gaining access to one more innovative feature known as “Sky Tags” which you can try for free 2 to 3 times. It will also be possible for you to save the objects in the heavens for any future reference and you can also share them through Apple’s iMessage along with others out there.
One more beneficial thing is that it will be feasible for you to attach observation notes as well as your personal astrophotography to every single “Sky Tag”. Meanwhile, you will be able to access the sky on some particular dates of your preference with the help of the revolutionary “Sky Timestamps” feature. Other things to mention here happen to be the impressive inbuilt data on regional stargazing conditions, plus an innovative auto-red light mode.
Even though you can try out the free version, you need to subscribe for gaining access to the best features.
8. Sky Tonight
The positive aspect of this app is that it provides us with beneficial real-world astronomical features. However, it does not come with any telescope control future.
It is a fact that buildings and trees might prove to be an obstacle while observing something in this real world. The innovative “interactive trajectory” feature of this app will depict you the exact movement of any selected object in relation to your present location for the remaining part of the night.
Besides this, the Sky Tonight app also presents us with a simple to navigate calendar presenting a listing of events that are going to happen in the sky of the user along with moon phase, stargazing conditions, and the best times of observation. It will be possible to save all these events for creating an observing list along with notifications.
9. Star Rover
This is amongst the best astronomy apps out there in case you love gazing at the sky. Star Rover will provide you with locations of constellations together with other important information like their names,
planets, star family, and so forth. This app makes use of artworks representing 88 constellations. Furthermore, it will provide a fantastic view of the Milky Way along with the real images.
10. Scope Nights
This comprehensive app will enable every single amateur astronomer to have proper knowledge regarding clear dark skies. Besides presenting an all-nigh, stargazing rating, it will likewise offer a weather forecast for 10 days for your present GPS location.
However, the most interesting feature regarding this Scope Nights app happens to be the “Scope Sites” section which enables users to save the preferred observing locations while searching for fresh ones as well. The positive thing about this app is that it provides forecasts for particular locations; however, there is some doubt regarding the accuracy of these forecasts.
There is also a dark-sky map that will enable you to observe the amount of light pollution at any particular site.