Night Sky for PC and Mac

Software Reviews and Criticism

• By Jeanettemwells

  Put the universe in your pocket!

  The NightSky app is astronomy at your finger tips on your tablet or phone. It gives easy access to view the planets and a multitude of other objects in our night sky and their orbits. Just match up objects on the app with the actual object in the night sky and the night sky becomes perfectly clear to pinpoint other objects of interest. It’s like a road map! I found, starting with Jupiter, I can find other stars an objects much easier. The “Glass constellations” feature, gives perspective to the stars positions and their relationships to each constellation...amazing! The effects you have at your fingertips to view deep space, the sky view in dark rural places as opposed to suburban viewing with ambient light pollution, helps a beginner to easily identify objects. I was enthralled to see the orbits of satellites, like the International Space Station and other monitoring devices and space stations orbit earth in real time! The information about stars along with being able to pull objects right out of the sky, turn those objects on their axis and read information about them, is absolutely impressive. A must for classroom teachers and a joy for amateur astronomers! NightSky app measures up to, and exceeds my every expectation!

  
  
• By Mike Wyckoff

  If you don’t have this app you’re missing out.

  I would have never known the International Space Station orbits the Earth about 15 times per day. I now watch it orbit twice just about every night. On non-cloudy nights anyway. It’s amazing. It’s like a star shooting across the night sky and Night Sky alerts us a couple minutes in advance then shows us exactly where to look. My 6 yr. old daughter has changed from wanting to be a veterinarian to wanting to be a space station driver. ;-) Not sure if the main intention of this app is educational or to get kids dreaming of space travel but it does both very well. Only had it for a few days now so it will be fun to see what else it does. I imagine we have only scratched the surface. Definitely spend the $10 on the year membership. Jumping from planet to planet and seeing the sky and stars from their perspective is worth $100. We saw a planetarium show this week at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. This app is like your own show. There is a ton of activity going on in the night sky. It’s so much more interesting and fun to see when you know what you’re looking at.

  
  
• By TKC1919

  Nice app but a little confusing to use

  Update. I started using sky guide and it is must easier to use. If you just want an app to show you what is in the sky that is a good app. Night sky is too complicated. I think I like this app but it is a little confusing to use. First it doesn't seem to reflect the actual sky. For instance, when I point it at Ursa Major it doesn’t show it exactly where it is in the sky. So, I am never sure what I am looking at when I look at the actual sky. It is like it just shows a map of the sky and isn’t really showing me the actual sky. I tried to use the sky blending but I can’t figure out how it works. The tutorial is lacking. I would like to see more explanation of each feature in the help section. Also in the preferences, there is no explanation of what each option is. For example, what does it mean if I enable the “moon” preference? I saw in one of the reviews the developers said to use the compass align to fix the view of the sky. I tried that but how does it work? What does the + or - degrees mean? More explanation is needed. I want to just point it at the sky and see exactly what I am pointing at be reflected in the view. I have had this app for years but just picked it up again. The older version was much simpler and more accurate.

  
  
• By Gkgmoskfjfjdjfjfndhdhhdhfj

  Honestly, worth it

  I’ve been using Nightsky for a long little while now. I found it by going through Trial and Errors of trying to find the best app to look at the sky. I’ve sat i went though 5-6 apps before I was happy with my choice. It’s offers you so many features without even paying for it, as you would have to do for any other app. It’s crazy. Because it’s a free app that offers you AR experiences to blend with your night sky, real time constellations, stars, galaxies, Nebulas, satellites, and even major NASA things like, Hubble Telescope, International Space Station, Meteor Showers And so much more. It has tours of planets too. They also have media news updates everyday about anything going on in space like, The Mercury and Mars Conjunction and Major things that will be able to be seen with the Naked Eye. I’ve dragged this on for too long but, over all it’s the best app to use for everyone who likes Astronomy and for Astronomers. -Iyana

  
  
• By Reader listener

  Missing some things

  I love this app but lately it’s not picking up everything. There is a bright object to the top left of the moon right now, in close relation visually, and it’s not registering on the app. I gave it the benefit of the doubt that the bodies showing up a little further out were it but none of them lined up with position in the sky in relation and visual proximity to the moon. The app used to be spot on. Second time in 2 months I’ve been disappointed with as many times using it. Last time it wouldn’t show me where the moon was at all when I was trying to brag about the app to friends. Next night: It was Mars. Why wouldn’t it be superimposed over one another and have something that says what it is? And when you try to zoom in to a local body you get visually flooded with our local cluster of galaxies (honestly, that’s annoying. I know it’s a combination of our galaxy with other galaxies mingled in, but help me learn from local bodies! At least give a staged zoom prompt where you can zoom to the inner planets, then the outer planets, then the galaxy, followed by the super clusters if you wanna take it deep lol. Also, this used to have a super easy to use function where you type in a local body and arrows guide you to its location in the sky. Why would you get rid of that?! 🤷‍♂️

  
  

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