As a space enthusiast, I discovered a new favorite stargazing iPhone app: Night Sky.
I love stargazing. Looking into the dark night and seeing constellations, planets and satellites fills me with wonder. As the weather improves, there’s no better time to get outside and catch a glimpse of celestial events, like a neighboring planet or the International Space Station (ISS) passing overhead.
The Sky Guide iPhone app was my favorite app and I don’t plan on deleting it anytime soon, but Night Sky has quickly become an indispensable companion on my stargazing adventures, offering information on more than 1.7 billion stars.
Why Night Sky is one of the best stargazing apps
One of my favorite features of Night Sky is its Augmented Reality (AR) feature. By simply holding my iPhone up to the sky, I can overlay images of planets, stars and constellations onto my real-world view. This feature is also available on the Apple Watch, allowing you to raise your hand to the sky and instantly get information about celestial bodies, which is useful when you’d rather not use your phone. The Sky Tags feature then allows you to tag and save objects in the sky for easy future reference.
The night sky is very adaptable. You can turn on/off music and sound effects, visualize orbits and trajectories, display constellation lines, and set notifications for visible meteor showers, satellites, and planets based on their location.
The basic version of Night Sky is free and offers a lot of functionality. But for those who want to dig deeper, Night Sky+ offers additional features for $39.99/£39.99 per year or $5.99/£5.99 per month, along with a 30-day free trial to see if it’s for you .
If you subscribe to Night Sky+, you can share your subscription with friends or family at no extra cost. The app also supports Connected Stargazing, a feature that lets you start a FaceTime call and sync the app across devices, allowing you to enjoy a real-time stargazing experience with someone remotely.
If you love the cosmos, Night Sky is an essential app that combines detailed information about the sky with innovative features that enhance the stargazing experience.