What is that bright star in the sky?
Identify a bright star or planet using your location, local time, direction and height above the horizon.
THE OBSERVING LIBRARY
Get to know your sky.
Start with one bright point. Learn where to look, what the numbers mean, and how to explore further.
Getting started
Plan an evening of stargazing
Choose a place, compare observing times, and pick a manageable first target.
A quieter way to explore the sky on your phone
Find the essential controls, use automatic phone movement, and keep more of the sky in view.
Your first night with Orion
A simple observing workflow for choosing a location, finding an object, and matching the map to the sky.
Understanding altitude, direction, and brightness
Read the numbers in the object panel and understand what they mean outdoors.
Using phone-controlled sky movement
Enable automatically aligned motion controls on iPhone or Android and recover from unavailable compass readings.
Planets
Where is Saturn tonight? Find it from your location
Saturn’s direction and visibility change with your location and time. Find it in your local sky map, check its height above the horizon, and choose when to look.
How to find Jupiter in the night sky
Find Jupiter and plan a look at the largest planet in our solar system.
How to find Venus in the night sky
Use your location and time to look for Venus in the morning or evening sky.
How to find Mars in the night sky
Locate the red planet and compare its changing position in your sky.
Stars
Finding Vega in the night sky
Use Vega as a bright reference star and learn how to locate it from your observing site.
Constellations
Getting to know Orion
Learn a practical way to recognize Orion and explore its stars in the map.