# Sextant: Night Sky Objects — Satellite tracker & star map > Satellite tracker & star map (iPhone/iPad app by Jason Dostal.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sextant-night-sky-objects/id6828648717 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Jason Dostal](https://appshunter.io/developer/6828648719) - Category: Reference, Education - Price: Free - Rating: 5.00/5 from 1 App Store ratings - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 17.0 · 3 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-11-05 - Data updated: 2026-11-13 ## What is Sextant? Hold your phone up to the sky and Sextant shows what's there: stars, planets, the Moon in its phase, the Milky Way, and the satellite crossing overhead right now. Built for the moment you see something moving up there and want to know what it is. Every lit satellite gets a short fading trail, so the dot on your screen matches the one crossing the sky. Tap it: Sextant names it, tells you how bright it is and how far away, and counts down to when it fades into Earth's shadow or sets. ALERTS • Star a satellite and get a heads-up before each pass you can see (2 to 30 minutes ahead, your choice): when, where it crosses, how high, how bright • Tonight's highlights: one line at sunset on the nights worth going out. Meteor shower peaks, the Moon beside a planet, planets at their closest, bright comets • Worked out on your phone; nothing is sent anywhere SATELLITES • Thousands of satellites from CelesTrak's orbits, refreshed twice a day • Motion trails and a pass track with minute-by-minute times • "Overhead now": the bright satellites lit up right now, and which way they're heading • The next day's visible passes for any satellite, a tap away from seeing it • Works offline from the orbits it last downloaded TONIGHT • Visible tonight: the Moon, planets, bright satellites, constellations and deep-sky objects worth looking at between dusk and dawn • An altitude chart for each over day, twilight and night, with rise, set and best time • Satellite passes you can actually see: sunlit, against a dark sky COMETS AND METEOR SHOWERS • Comets from the Minor Planet Center's orbits, with tails pointing away from the Sun and a forecast of when each is brightest • All 37 meteor showers on the IMO calendar: radiants on the sky while they're active, peak nights in Visible tonight with the Moon's interference • For anything that isn't up tonight: the next night it is THE SKY • Point mode: aim your phone and the sky follows; pick anything and an arrow walks you to it • Stars, planets, the Moon in its phase, and the Milky Way • Constellation figures appear for the one you're looking at, or always, or never • 21 famous clusters, nebulae and galaxies: the Pleiades, Andromeda, the Orion Nebula and more • Time travel: drag the clock to see tonight at 3 a.m., or next week • Night mode turns everything dim red to keep your eyes dark-adapted • Search stars, planets, comets, meteor showers, constellations, deep-sky objects and satellites (by name or NORAD number); sort by brightness or height, filter to what's up now • Favourites: star anything to keep it at the top of search • Set your location by hand if you'd rather not share it ACCURATE Star and planet positions are tested against Stellarium to under half an arcminute; satellite positions and pass times against Skyfield to under a second; comet positions against Skyfield to under a tenth of an arcminute. PRIVATE No account, no ads, no tracking, no analytics. Your location is used on your phone to work out the sky and never leaves it. Alerts are scheduled on your phone too. ## Is Sextant safe? Not enough ratings yet to assess Sextant. ## Is Sextant legit? Sextant: Night Sky Objects has limited verification signals. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Sextant is 58 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data. ## Version history (last 4 releases) ### 1.2 — 2026-11-12 Alerts: Sextant can now tell you when to look up. • Pass alerts: star a satellite on its card and you'll get a heads-up a few minutes before every pass you can actually see, with when, from where to where, how high and how bright. Five minutes by default; you choose. Star the ISS and never miss it again. • Tonight's highlights: one line at sunset, only on the nights with something worth going out for. A meteor shower at its peak, the Moon sitting beside a planet, two planets at their closest, a comet bright enough to find, a brilliant space station pass. • Favourites: anything you star is at the top of search. • Private, like everything else here: alerts are worked out on your phone. Nothing is sent anywhere, and there's still no account. And a long list of things that just work better: • Visible tonight knows what time it is. What's already been and gone is dimmed and moved out of the way, and satellites show their next pass rather than one you've missed. • The detail card no longer covers the thing it's describing: it sits along the bottom, or down the side when your phone is turned, and the sky moves over to keep its object in view. • The name pill has an X to let go and an i for details. • Fewer satellite names crowding the sky: the famous ones, the one you're looking at and the brightest few. The rest keep their trails. • Tap the place or the satellite readout at the top to see what it means, and to type in a location if you'd rather not share yours. • Times follow your phone's 12- or 24-hour setting everywhere. • Visible tonight leads with what's up right now. • A satellite you've picked is always on screen, even before it rises or while it's in Earth's shadow, and the app says when you'll next see it. • Flick the sky and it glides to a stop. A small tap under your finger when you pick something. • Names no longer run off the edge of the screen or hide under the name pill. • Search has the room it should when the keyboard is up. • Bigger buttons, for cold hands in the dark. ### 1.1.1 — 2026-11-08 Fixes a bug in 1.1 where turning the phone between portrait and landscape left half the screen black. Sextant fills the screen in both orientations again, and the controls stay clear of the Dynamic Island. ### 1.1 — 2026-11-07 Comets, meteor showers, and a much better search. • Comets: orbits from the Minor Planet Center, refreshed weekly. Bright ones appear on the sky with a tail pointing away from the Sun, and every comet's card says when it will be at its brightest. • Meteor showers: all 37 on the International Meteor Organization's calendar. Radiants are marked while a shower is on, and near a good peak Visible tonight tells you how many an hour, how much the Moon will get in the way, and when the radiant is up. • Search: browse by kind, results grouped, sort by brightness or by how high things are, show only what's up now or what you can see without binoculars. Recent searches, and a button back to your results. Every row says when it next rises, sets or passes over. • Next chance: anything that isn't up tonight tells you the next night it is, and takes you there. • A clearer top bar that stays out of the Dynamic Island, a wider view in point mode, and a slider for how faint the stars go. ### 1.0 — 2026-11-05 No release notes. ## More apps by Jason Dostal - [Sounder: Offline Field Maps](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sounder-offline-field-maps/id6828679082) - [Legal Light: WI Shooting Hours](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/legal-light-wi-shooting-hours/id6832333458) All apps by Jason Dostal: https://appshunter.io/developer/6828648719 ## Related topics [spaceship night watch](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/spaceship-night-watch) --- *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 2026-11-13.*