Sky Guide: View Stars Night or Day for iOS

Sky Guide takes you on a tour of the stars and other interstellar bodies above you at any given point in time, no matter where you are. Just tilt your phone up, and you can see stars, planets, satellites, and more, right on your phone.

Pros

Automatic alignment: By either tapping the Compass button or tilting your phone, you trigger the app to automatically detect your location and display stars accordingly. This means you can more precisely match the stars you see in the sky with those displayed on your device, and you don't have to worry about trying to align things yourself.

Use anytime: Of course, the best part about using this app is that you can compare it to the night sky and identify the stars, constellations, and other items that you see. But it doesn't have to be dark out for this app to work. In fact, you can activate it anytime, day or night, inside or outside, to find out what's above your head at that very moment.

Info button: Constellations displayed in this app are outlined and have an Info button next to them that you can tap to bring up a short history of that formation and its naming. You can also tap any star or planet at any time to reveal its Info button and get some background information.

Cons

Your location: Unfortunately, depending on where you live, you may not be able to see a lot of stars in the sky, yourself, on any given night. This certainly isn't due to a deficiency in the app, but it does take away one fun aspect of viewing and comparing.

Bottom Line

Sky Guide is a smooth and informative app that can get you quickly hooked on studying the night sky. It does just about everything you'd like it to do, and it does it well. It costs $1.99 to download, and if you'd like to activate the satellite tracking feature, you'll have to pay an additional $1.99 via in-app purchase.

Are you ready for the 2017 solar eclipsekwscnmrk

This version adds some fantastic tools for planning and watching the eclipse:

+ A new menu option in Search will lead you to some helpful tips on preparing for the eclipse along with a map showing the eclipse path. Move the map and you will see the eclipse times automatically update.

+ Sky Guide now has a super-precise solar eclipse simulator--accurate down to the second. If you can't travel or are unlucky with the weather, watch the eclipse happen in Sky Guide! Instructions are provided in the previously mentioned menu option.

Also in this version:

+ Updated map of Jupiter with more detail in the poles (thanks NASA/Juno!)

+ Fixed a bug that might have caused your favorites to crash.