StarTeller vs Night Sky Planner

Introducing StarTeller for iOS: your personal guide to the night sky, built for astrophotographers who refuse to miss a shot. StarTeller takes the guesswork out of planning your next imaging session. With a catalog of over 13,000 deep-sky objects at your fingertips, you'll know exactly when each target rises, peaks, and sets, down to the minute, so you can make every clear night count. Whether you're chasing faint nebulae, distant galaxies, or glittering star clusters, StarTeller tells you the best night to image each object from your exact location. See how long each target will be above the horizon, check its coordinates, and preview reference images, all before you ever step outside. Built as a planning companion for your telescope rig, StarTeller helps you build a session plan around what the sky is actually offering tonight. No more scrolling forums or cross-referencing almanacs. Just open the app, pick your targets, and know exactly when to shoot them. All visibility calculations run on your device with precise astronomical math, no internet required. Reference images load online, or download them in Settings for offline use. No AI-generated answers, just deterministic astronomy math that works anywhere, including dark sites with no signal. StarTeller Features: - 13,000+ deep-sky objects across the Messier, NGC, IC, SH2, and other catalogs - Full visibility data for every object: rise, peak, and set times, altitude arc, observing duration, nights visible per year from your location, magnitude, angular size, and coordinates in J2000 or JNow - Real reference photos for every target, so you know what you're aiming at before you set up - Search by object name, catalog ID (e.g. M42, NGC 6992), or constellation; filter and sort by type, catalog, altitude, size, and best date - Interactive sky map for any location and date, with constellation lines, star names, object paths, and an altitude grid - Altitude timeline: scrub through the night and watch any object's arc update in real time, on any night past or future - Telescope framing: save your scope and camera (focal length, reducer or Barlow, sensor size, or a direct field of view) and see exactly how a target frames up before you shoot - Custom horizon: trace your real skyline through the camera and StarTeller factors your trees and rooftops into every visibility calculation - Astronomical darkness: civil, nautical, and astronomical twilight, plus the exact dark window for tonight - Moon planning: phase, illumination, moonrise and moonset, angular size, and the next new and full moon dates - All seven planets tracked in real time, with rise, set, and peak times from your location - Set and save unlimited locations easily by using GPS, map pin, or manual coordinate entry, and keep your targets in a dedicated favorites view - AR sky mode: point your phone at the sky to align the map with the real night above you - Night vision red mode to preserve your dark adaptation in the field - Core planning works fully offline; optional image downloads for complete offline use Free includes the complete Messier catalog (110 objects) and access to all app features. Upgrade to StarTeller Pro to unlock all 13,000+ objects across NGC, IC, SH2, and additional catalogs. Whether you're a seasoned astrophotographer or just getting started with your first telescope, StarTeller puts the entire night sky on your schedule. The sky is waiting. Show up ready.

Night Sky Planner works out what's worth looking at tonight from your exact spot, and exactly when to catch it. It's for people who actually go out and look. Everything runs on your phone, so it works at the end of a dirt road with no signal and no account. It starts with your night: sunset, the three twilights, the moment the sky goes properly dark, then dawn on the way back. It also tracks moonrise, moonset, and how lit the Moon is, since that's usually what washes out a faint target. Then it scores about 200 objects for where you are tonight: the Messier catalog, NGC and IC deep-sky objects, the brighter stars, and the planets. For each one you get when it clears your horizon, how high it climbs, when it peaks, and the stretch of real darkness when it's worth pointing at. PLANNING THE NIGHT • Night strip: the whole night on one timeline, dusk through darkness to dawn • Gantt view: every target you've picked and its window across the night, marked at its highest point • Best Nights: ranks the coming nights for one object, so you know whether to go now or wait out the Moon FINDING IT • POINT ME: hold the phone up and a compass-and-tilt guide walks you onto the target you chose • A printable finder rose with azimuth and altitude, for setting circles or the naked eye SEEING WHAT IT IS • A sky-survey plate for every object, plus the plain facts: type, magnitude, size, constellation • Thumbnails ship inside the app; tap once to pull the full-resolution plate and keep it for offline nights MAKING IT YOURS • Filter by gear (naked eye, binoculars, or telescope) and by object type • Set location by GPS, or search a place and drop a pin • A clean share card for the night's list • Paper and night themes, in a plain monospaced almanac style • iPhone and iPad, portrait or landscape PRIVATE, AND IT STAYS THAT WAY No account, no sign-up, no ads, nothing tracking you, and no server of ours for anything to land on. The motion sensors stay on the phone, and when the sky view uses the camera to help you line up on a star, those frames are read and thrown away on the spot — nothing is photographed or saved. It does reach the network for four things: an hourly cloud forecast for your spot, which is the one it fetches on its own; a place search, if you type one; Apple Maps, if you open the map picker; and a full-resolution sky-survey plate from CDS in Strasbourg, if you ask for one. Every bit of the astronomy is computed on your phone, so it all still works with no signal. Set your location and see tonight's list. Clear skies.