Apps For Viewing The Night Sky
What's in the night sky?
Astronomical objects such as the stars, planets, the moon, comets and meteors can be seen with the naked eye from earth. Depending on where you are on Earth, you can also see auroras such as the northern lights or southern lights. The visibility of these objects are affected by light pollution and so not all of them may be visible if you live in a city. This is known as urban skyglow. Light from the moon can also hinder astronomical viewing of other astronomical objects.
Which night sky app is the best?
The best apps you may need to pay for, however, we can recommend a great free app.
Star Walk 2 is available on the Google Play Store here and here on the Apple Store here
Star Walk 2 offers the following:
• Stars and constellations, their position in the night sky
• Solar system bodies (solar system planets, the Sun, the Moon, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets)
• Deep Space objects (nebulae, galaxies, star clusters)
• Satellites overhead
• Meteor showers, equinoxes, conjunctions, full/new Moon and etc.
What’s visible in the night sky?
Depending on the time of year and whether you are near a city or living in the countryside you will be able to see different objects. With the naked eye, you can see the constellations and stars, the moon, galaxies, comets, asteroids, the international space station and satellites. With a telescope or even a pair of binoculars, you can see them in much more detail.
Where is Andromeda in the night sky?
The Andromeda Galaxy is found in the constellation of Andromeda.
Where is Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Saturn, the Moon, Sirius, Orion and the Milky way in the night sky?
We recommend using this online tool to help you find where these objects are in the night sky as you can set it to your current location: Star Atlas
Where to watch the night sky?
You can watch the night sky from anywhere in the world. Even in cities with lots of light pollution, you can still observe the moon with the naked eye or a pair of binoculars.
How do I use an App to of the night sky when light pollution is blocking my view from the city I live in?
This one of the reasons why we launched our Clear Night Skies Projects to not only help reduce light pollution but to give all humans the chance to view the night sky one night a year without any light pollution.
Light pollution stops the majority of humans seeing the night sky in all its glory. This disconnects us from our surroundings. What we want to do is to bridge that connection by encouraging councils and governments to turn off all street lights from midnight to 5 am so that citizens across the world can see the night sky in its natural form. Click the button below to learn more.