Milky Way Tonight vs Satrelle

Photographing the Milky Way takes a lot of planning and timing. Milky Way Tonight handles all of that for you in an easy to understand way. Open the app and the first thing you see is Tonight at a Glance: a plain-language summary of whether tonight is worth going out. It tells you when the Galactic Core rises and peaks, when the moon sets, what the cloud cover looks like, and how dark your skies are on the Bortle scale (light pollution levels) If tonight is a bust, it tells you the next clear window so you can start planning ahead. Below that is a 7-day forecast strip that color-codes each night by visibility quality and highlights the best opportunity in the week. Tap any day for a full breakdown. When you're ready to find a location, the Dark Sky Finder searches for darker skies near you, ranked by light pollution, cloud cover, and driving distance together. You'll find darker spots on a map and the best realistic option for tonight. The Composition Planner lets you visualize where the Milky Way arc will be positioned relative to a location before you ever leave home. See the galactic core position, plan your foreground, and show up knowing exactly what shot you're going for. Sky View not only opens a star map using your phone's compass, but with access to your camera the AR mode allows for real-time planning. Point it at the sky, the horizon or directly at your foreground to see exactly where and when the stars align over your composition. It's a powerful tool for scouting compositions in the field and knowing exactly when you need to be shooting. Core Alignment: While using Sky View, tap anywhere on screen to see exactly if & when the Milky Way Core will align above that foreground; the next time and for the rest of the season. The ultimate composition planner. H-Alpha boost mode shifts the overlay to highlight nebula and emission regions. Perfect for astro modified cameras. The visibility calendar is your personal Milky Way calendar, built off your exact location. It maps out every night of the year so you can plan shoots weeks or months in advance. Save any night to My MW Nights to add notes, see the sky conditions, and keep all your plans in one place. The NPF calculator helps you dial in the sharpest possible stars for your specific camera and lens combination, so you know the longest exposure you can shoot without trailing. When you're in the field, Dark Adaptation Mode tints and dims your screen red so your night vision stays intact. For anyone new to this type of photography, the Getting Started guide walks through the entire workflow from scratch, including how to read the data in the app, what gear settings to use, and how to actually find the Milky Way once you're in the field. Built by landscape astrophotographer Jack Fusco (@jackfusco). FEATURES - Tonight at a Glance: galactic core rise, peak, and window times for your location. Full nightly and core specific cloud forecasts - Nightly quality ratings: Excellent, Good, Brief, Limited, and Blocked with plain-language explanations - Next clear window: see exactly how many nights until conditions improve - 7-day Milky Way and cloud forecast strip - Dark Sky Finder: ranked by light pollution, cloud cover, and driving distance Bortle class and SQM ratings for any location - Composition Planner: visualize the galactic arc over your planned foreground - Sky View AR: live star map with camera overlay using your phone's compass - Monthly visibility calendar built from your exact location - Core Alignment - See exactly when the MW will line up over any foreground. - My MW Nights: save shooting nights with notes and sky data - NPF calculator: find the sharpest exposure time for your camera and lens - Dark Adaptation Mode: red screen tint to protect your night vision in the field - Offline support: cached forecast data available without a connection - Getting Started guide written for complete beginners No account required, no ads, no tracking

On August 12, 2026, the moon's shadow crosses Spain at more than two thousand kilometers per hour. Satrelle tells you exactly when it reaches the spot where you're standing, to the second, computed on your phone, no signal required. FREE, A COMPLETE OBSERVER'S TOOL • Contact times C1-C4 for your exact position, from NASA Besselian elements, computed entirely on-device • Totality duration, sun altitude, and a live countdown • Set your site by GPS, on the map, or by typing coordinates • The 2026 and 2027 eclipses, plus future events • Works fully offline, in a field, on a mountain, anywhere THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S KIT, ONE PURCHASE, YOURS FOREVER Everything you use with a camera in your hands: • Exposure toolkit, Espenak tables computed for your aperture, ISO, and filter, with live atmospheric extinction for your sun altitude • Corona-pass fit, how many full bracket ladders your totality holds • Eclipse-day mode, timed voice callouts, camera-filter warnings, and T-minus haptics through all four contacts • Live Activity, the countdown on your lock screen and Dynamic Island • Rehearsal mode, practice your totality before you spend it • Site comparison, save candidate sites and compare their durations • Clock verification against NTP, contact times ride on your clock • Manual contact times from any limb-corrected site prediction The Kit is a single one-time purchase. It includes the August 2027 eclipse and every eclipse after it, it's shareable with your family, and every feature works with no connection at all. SAFETY Never look at the sun without ISO 12312-2 eclipse glasses. The only exception is totality itself, between second and third contact, and Satrelle tells you exactly when that is.