The night sky is amazing to look at. It’s a different view everyday, and it’s free! The night sky can be a great place to relax, unwind and enjoy the peace and quiet of nature. It’s also good for your health because it helps you sleep better at night.
The beauty of the stars can be inspiring, too. If you don’t know where to start with stargazing, these astronomy apps will help you.
Table of Contents
The best free astronomy apps for stargazing
You can use these amazing and completely free astronomy apps to help you stargaze and learn more about astronomy.
1. SkyView Lite
SkyView Lite is a free astronomy app that lets you explore the sky in real-time. It shows you where the planets, stars, and constellations are and satellites passing overhead. When it’s nighttime where you are, SkyView Lite will show you what constellations are visible in your location and what their names are.
2. Star Chart
Star Chart is a free app for iOS and Android that shows you which stars, planets, constellations, and other celestial objects are in the sky from any point on earth. It’s simple to use: just point your phone at the sky and start stargazing. You can zoom in to see more detail or spin around to see the whole sky, no matter where you are.
3. NASA App
This free app from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration provides you with the latest news about NASA missions, including new discoveries and important milestones. The app also includes a calendar of upcoming events and a list of resources for learning more about space. Unlike other free astronomy apps on this list, you can use NASA App offline to save data when you’re out in nature or away from WiFi.
4. Night Sky
Night Sky is an excellent app for learning about constellations and planets. It was created by a small team of astronomers and astrophysicists, so it’s packed with in-depth information.
The app starts with a tutorial explaining how to find your way around the sky, making it easy to learn about astronomy if you’ve never done so. You can also use Night Sky as a traditional star map: point the phone at any celestial object, and the app will tell you what it is and show its location in relation to other stars, constellations, etc., on earth (e.g., “Venus appears above Jupiter”). If there’s no Moon out tonight, but you still want to see some stars, this feature alone could make this worth downloading!
5. SkyView Free
SkyView is an excellent app for stargazing. It uses your phone’s camera to identify planets, stars, and constellations. You can also use it to find out when the next meteor shower is coming up when the next lunar eclipse will be, and what time it is in other places around the world. If you want to see what the sky looks like from somewhere else on Earth at any given moment (or date), choose a location, and SkyView will show you how that area of the sky appears from that location.
6. GoSkyWatch Planetarium
GoSkyWatch Planetarium is a good app for stargazing. It’s available on Android and iOS and free to download. This app is good for beginners who want to learn more about the night sky without paying anything.
GoSkyWatch Planetarium features:
- a map of the stars in real-time, with constellations marked out in different colors;
- a tour mode that takes you through the night sky;
- an augmented reality feature if you have Google Cardboard or another VR headset.
7. ISS Detector
ISS Detector is an excellent real-time astronomy app for finding the International Space Station. It uses your phone’s location to determine your position in the sky and shows you where to look for the ISS on any given day. The app can also be used to track satellites, the moon, and planets, but its main purpose is helping you track our favorite space station.
8. Sky Map
Sky Map is a Google app that can identify stars, planets, and satellites from your location. It also identifies constellations and galaxies.
It’s easy to learn about the stars without buying an expensive telescope or binoculars with special lenses.
9. SkEye Astronomy
Located in the Sky is a free astronomy app for iOS that gives you access to the stars, planets, and satellites. You can use it to look at constellations, search for specific celestial bodies and even discover where they are from your location. This astronomy app also has a live sky view, so you can see what’s going on in the night sky right now or tonight.
10. Star & Planet Finder
This astronomy app is available for both iOS and Android, and it’s free. It has a database of over 80000 stars and 20000 galaxies, as well as 10000 planets. So you can use this app to find out what stars are in the sky at any given time—no matter where you are on Earth!
You can also use this application to see if any planets are visible in your area at night. The interface is simple and user-friendly, so even kids can get the hang of using it quickly.
