15 Best Astronomy Applications for iPhone
These days, it seems there is nothing you can’t do on an iPhone. Whether you want to use your phone as a GPS or just an education tool, you can do it all on iPhone. Thanks to the talented community of iPhone developers, you can now use your phone to navigate the skies right on your phone. Whether you want to know more about the stars or just want to explore the moon, it’s all possible on your phone.
Here are 15 best astronomy iPhone applications available in iTunes:
StarMap: StarMap is one of the best astronomy applications for iPhone. It can help you navigate the space and find new objects to observe fast. Hundreds of thousands of stars are available in its database.
Star Walk: Star Walk reminds me of SkyScout. It’s a cool iPhone app that will show you what you are looking at in the sky. It also comes with plenty of other features to help you take your game to the next level.
Sky Gazer: Sky Gazer is designed for astronomy beginners, and it gets you familiar with the most important stars in the sky. And it uses iPhone 3GS’ compass feature to help you identify planets, stars, and more.
Distant Suns 3: Distant Suns comes with thousands of stars and planets and helps you explore the sky right on your iPhone.
Star Chart for iPhone: Star Chart for iPhone puts a virtual star chart in your pocket. Just point the app to the sky to find out what you are looking at.
GoSkyWatch Planetarium: GoSkyWatch Planetarium is wonderful application that helps you locate and identify planets in the sky. If you are into astronomy, you are going to have a lot of fun with the star finder and other features available with this app.
Solar Walk: Solar Walk 3D lets you play with the objects in our solar system right on your iPhone. It lets you explore the planets and find out all kinds of information about them. It is compatible with iOS 4.
Star Search: Star Search is a great educational tool for anyone interested in the field of astronomy. You can browse the stars and learn new things in the process. A must have for beginners.
Grand Tour 3D – Pocket Solar System: need an application that lets you view our solar system in a whole different light on your iPhone? Grand Tour 3D is the app for you.
APOD Viewer: a cool app that brings you breathtaking pictures from the galaxies and systems far, far away from our earth right on your phone.
AU – The Solar System: this is another astronomy application that covers our solar system. Get information on planets in our solar system right on your phone.
Planetarium: Planetarium allows you to explore our solar system and provides you with excellent graphics to enrich your space exploration experience.
Pocket Universe: Pocket Universe is another cool iPhone application that lets you navigate the stars and learn new things about this field. Great for beginners.
Moon Globe: Moon Globe is a wonderful app that lets you explore our moon to your heart’s desire. Great tool for astronomy students and moon enthusiasts.
Galaxy Collider: a guilty pleasure but Galaxy Collider shows you what happens when galaxies collide in the space. You can now watch one of most breathtaking events in our universe right on your iPhone.
Your take: what’s your favorite astronomy app for iPhone?
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Don't forget "Flyby" which is great for spotting bright satellites and the ISS when they fly over. Since these objects are some of the brightest in the sky and they move so fast, it's rewarding to see them overhead.
September 8th, 2010 at 9:43 amAn other heavy player is Astromist. Reference on Palm and Windows Mobile devices since years, it is available since June 2010 on iPhone. Everything is covered from Sky map to Earth Satellite tracking, 3D planet view or sun/moon eclipse simulation. A must have.
October 9th, 2010 at 12:07 amIt's a cool list, but do you have any idea what distinguishes the one app from the other? What makes them your 15 best?
November 19th, 2010 at 4:31 amAdvanced amateurs wanting to track sidereal time and Julian date, either for setting circle alignment or time sensitive observations might find AstroClock useful. If you are into variable stars, the Variable Stars app offers a searchable database.
December 21st, 2010 at 4:11 pmskysafari is the best one by far
March 6th, 2011 at 11:41 pmSkySafari and Starmap Pro.
Does anything else come close?
March 21st, 2011 at 2:50 pmI like RedShift, which we will be adding to this list shortly.
March 22nd, 2011 at 3:45 amI have a star chart app on my touch and its really helpfull to a noobe like me but ill be sure to try these others out
March 22nd, 2011 at 8:21 amI have to ask, what's the difference? I really just want to be able to point it up and say "oh hey that's that this one is called" I don't need the extra bells and whistles… I just want to know what constellations I'm looking at, I know Androde phones can get Google Sky which is free… does Apple have any that are like that program and free?
April 5th, 2011 at 7:46 pmAre all of these compatible with the Southern Hemisphere?
April 12th, 2011 at 7:46 pmI’m a bit disappointed at the lack of depth and differentiation in this review. Some of these apps do very different things. You could categorise them to start with. And if you expect people to download a whole app for just this purpose then does just a sentence or two cut it as a review?
Pictures: APOD is great. Then your moon and planet explorers. The big one is the star gazing ones and there are big differences. Some don’t even have a red mode, or if they do, they also have icons and things that still mess up your night vision. The gyro accuracy on some seems dodgy – I like Pocket Universe but have problems with this aspect. It would be good if some of them gave realistic assessments of what DFOs you could see dependent on what your viewing conditions and scope are. An I’d love if some of them built in brightness control so you could tone down the screen without having to go to Settings (totally trashing your night vision in the process).April 15th, 2011 at 2:08 pmAlan, you are right. We are working hard on improving our lists. I do encourage you to check our reviews on iPhoneappsfinder.com as that is our sister site for individual reviews. In the meantime, we will do a better job differentiating these in the future.
April 15th, 2011 at 8:53 pmIs there an app that lets you put in a star's coordinates so you can look at a specific star anytime you want? Such as a star that was bought and named for you? Thanks
May 8th, 2011 at 6:48 pmStar Map Pro and Sky Safari offer something similar. I think you can actually connect them to your telescope. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goskywatch-planeta… is not a bad one either but I am not sure it offers what you need.
May 9th, 2011 at 2:23 pmI really like your providing the list of 15. I do have one suggestion, though. Put the names and the blurb first, then the screen shot–and add some blank space between apps. Right now, as one scrolls down the page, it gets confusing which picture goes with which app! Name should go first!
May 12th, 2011 at 2:59 pmRoby. We are due for a redesign. It'll take time but things will be that much better.
May 13th, 2011 at 2:03 pmDo any of these apps require a camera? I have the 1st generation iPod touch 8gb
December 24th, 2011 at 11:29 pmNot all of them. For instance, Moon Globe does not require a camera. Some other ones would work the best with a decent cam when you point your phone to the sky to identify objects.
December 25th, 2011 at 4:46 pmIs there an app to allow me to connect my Samsung camera to a telescope eyepiece so that my wife and 18 month old grandchild can view the sky without scrunching up to an eyepiece?
March 9th, 2012 at 8:32 pmThere is an app that shows the moon phase every 12 hours in HQ:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/touch-moon!-alms-a…April 21st, 2012 at 9:35 amexactly my criticism
April 21st, 2012 at 11:29 amI completely understand. We are in the process of overhauling all our lists. Some of other lists have already been updated with this information. But we have over 100 lists here. We will address these shortcomings shortly.
April 21st, 2012 at 3:51 pm
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