# AsterScope — Astronomy Planner & Sky Chart

> Astronomy Planner & Sky Chart (iPhone/iPad app by 红斌 戚.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/asterscope/id6762000638 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [红斌 戚](https://appshunter.io/developer/1854607141)
- Category: Reference, Weather
- Price: $3.99 with in-app purchases (on sale, was $4.99)
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 12 MB
- Languages: American English, French (France), German (Germany), Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, European Portuguese, European Spanish, Thai and 1 more
- Released: 2026-05-02
- Data updated: 2026-08-29
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/asterscope/id6762000638/reviews.md

## What is AsterScope?

AsterScope is the transparent stargazing planner built for real observers — from first-time binocular users to seasoned deep-sky hunters. Instead of dumping a wall of coordinates, it answers the question you actually care about: "Is tonight worth setting up?"

EXPLAINABLE TONIGHT PLAN
Every plan is scored on five independent pillars — Sky clarity, Moon friendliness, Dark hours, Gear fit, and Target quality — and visualized as a five-axis radar chart. You see at a glance which pillar is dragging the night down, plus a one-tap remediation hint ("Switch to planets tonight, deep-sky is compromised by the bright Moon").

TRENDING SKY EVENTS
A built-in event ranker surfaces what is actually worth chasing this week — meteor peaks, lunar phases, planetary conjunctions, eclipses, ISS passes — ordered by visibility from your location, not by hype.

COMMUNITY HOTSPOTS (OPTIONAL)
See where stargazers around the world are heading right now. AsterScope quietly listens to public posts on Mastodon and Bluesky, extracts location signals for US, EU, and Japan dark-sky sites, and shows a ranked hotspot list. Tap any hotspot to open the original post in your browser — no third-party text is rendered inside the app.

INTERACTIVE SKY CHART
Real-time gnomonic projection backed by precise ephemeris. Tap any object for rise/set times, an altitude graph, and imaging suitability. Horizon-up mode mirrors what you see in the eyepiece.

AR SKY OVERLAY
Point your phone at the sky and AsterScope labels stars, planets, and deep-sky objects in real time. Markers stay pinned to celestial positions as you pan across the night.

DARK-SKY FINDER
Browse nearby dark-sky sites with Bortle ratings, compare light pollution, and plan trips to the best location within driving distance.

OBSERVATION LOGBOOK
Pin must-see objects to a Tonight List, work through them during the session, and keep a searchable log with year reports and CSV / Markdown export.

BUILT FOR READABILITY
Full Dynamic Type support across plans, events, logs, AR hints, and the dark-sky map — text scales cleanly with your iOS text size, including the larger accessibility sizes, with no clipping or overlap.

WHAT YOUR APP PURCHASE INCLUDES
The paid download already unlocks Tonight Score, the explainable plan, sky chart, AR overlay, dark-sky finder, observation log, weather forecasts, trending sky events, community hotspots, and the Core catalog (planets, the Moon, bright stars, and popular Messier objects). No subscription. No auto-renewal.

OPTIONAL ONE-TIME CATALOG UPGRADES
For deep-sky observers who want the long tail, two non-consumable, one-time upgrades extend catalog depth only:
- Catalog Upgrade — adds Extended and Pro Deep Sky catalogs to planning, search, AR, and offline packs.
- Ad-Free Catalog Upgrade — same catalogs, with no third-party ads.
Neither is required to use the app.

PRIVACY
AsterScope uses coarse location only. Coordinates are rounded to a roughly 1 km grid before any third-party request. Apple WeatherKit, Open-Meteo, 7Timer ASTRO, and NASA GIBS receive only the rounded coordinates needed for forecasts and imagery. The community hotspot feature reads only public posts via official public endpoints (Mastodon, Bluesky), aggregates them on-device, and never uploads your location or identity. We do not collect or sell personal data. Full policy: https://qixiaobing54673.github.io/asterscope-site/privacy.html

AsterScope works offline for core sky calculations. An internet connection is needed for weather, dark-sky site information, image fetching, trending events, and community hotspots.

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: $3.99.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Catalog Upgrade | $4.99 | one-time |
| Ad-Free Catalog Upgrade | $7.99 | one-time |



## Version history (last 4 releases)

### 1.2.1 — 2026-07-29

What’s New in 1.2.1

• Meet the new Tonight Plan: clear, explainable stargazing guidance based on sky conditions, moonlight, dark hours, gear fit, and target quality.
• Explore an upgraded Sky Chart with a wider field of view, smoother device tracking, smarter labels, richer search, and faster rendering.
• Enjoy a more detailed Milky Way sky, improved target details, observing logs, and dark-sky planning tools.
• Discover richer celestial-event coverage for eclipses, meteor showers, planetary windows, ISS, and bright satellite passes.
• Improved location time zones, forecast reliability, date formatting, localization, and overall stability.

### 1.2 — 2026-06-14

What's new in 1.2

- Added 7 interface languages: Hindi, Thai, Spanish, French, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, and Korean, bringing AsterScope to 11 supported languages.
- Added curated dark-sky sites for India and Thailand, plus a new Asia-Pacific region in the dark-sky finder.
- Fixed Thai locale dates to use the Gregorian calendar.
- Improved sky-news feed loading reliability and reduced noisy feed-failure alerts.
- Localization, stability, and layout polish.

### 1.0.1(5) — 2026-06-02

What’s new in 1.0.1

- Trending Sky Events: this week’s meteor peaks, lunar phases, planetary conjunctions, eclipses and ISS passes are now ranked by visibility from your location, so the top of the list is what’s actually worth chasing tonight.
- Community Hotspots (US / EU / JP): see where stargazers around the world are heading right now. AsterScope reads public posts on Mastodon and Bluesky, extracts dark-sky place names on-device, and shows a ranked hotspot list. Tap any hotspot to open the original post in your browser — no third-party text is shown inside the app.
- Readability pass: full Dynamic Type support across the Tonight plan, events timeline, observation log, AR hints and the dark-sky map. Text now scales cleanly with your iOS text size, including the larger accessibility sizes, with no clipping or overlap.
- Stability, layout and performance polish.

### 1.0 — 2026-05-02

No release notes.

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## More apps by 红斌 戚

- [Pharma Surge](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pharma-surge/id6758883728)
- [LensPair:LensPair](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lenspairlenspair/id6785991253)
- [Body Shape: Personal Baseline](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/body-shape-personal-baseline/id6799469465)

All apps by 红斌 戚: https://appshunter.io/developer/1854607141

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-29.*