Watch Planets, Stars and Constellations, in Live Mode or as Astronomical Clock
Your window to the starry sky
Hold your device into the sky to observe and identify planets, stars and constellations through your phone's display. Enjoy Astrolapp's highly sensitive and very accurate Live Mode, along with a visually appealing and intuitive interface. (Note: Live Mode is available only on devices with a built in compass)
Stars are drawn according to their true color and provided with their names according to the International Astronomical Union. Optionally, the 88 official constellations are drawn with or without name labels. Use a powerful search function and let an arrow guide you to find any planet, star or constellation above your head.
Tapping on any star or planet, Astrolapp highlights the path across the sky which the celestial body follows in the course of the night (or day). In addition, Astrolapp calculates rise and set times for any celestial body to the minute and shows the current position data in tabular form on a separate pull-out display.
Astrolapp automatically detects your current location and uses it to calculate the starry sky as you are seeing it. But if you ever want to know what the starry sky looks like at the other end of the world, just use the built-in map to select any other location.
Also, Astrolapp will show you the current sky by default. However, should you be interested in how the sky will look like next month, or wish to plot planetary constellations at historical events decades or centuries ago, Astrolapp will take you there in a few seconds. Watch the sky changing, in fast motion!
As an alternative to live-mode or for devices without a built-in compass, Astrolapp offers a star-map-mode. To switch between the two types of display, tap the '3D'-button. Both modes offer basically the same information and functionality as described above.
Star-map-mode: An interactive star map in the style of an astronomical clock
This representation visualizes the mechanics of the Solar System and the movements of the stars and constellations in the course of the day and the year. This is achieved by a planar projection of the celestial sphere, as it was used in medieval astrolabes and astronomical clocks.
Astrolapp depicts the celestial sphere as it would be seen by someone sitting at the celestial north pole. From this point of view, the sun moves clockwise around the center of the plot, within one day, parallel to the celestial equator, just like on a 24-hour dial of a clock. Moon and planets move a little more or less than a full circle per day, depending on their proper motion within the solar system.
Features
★ No sounds, no advertisements -- just quiet night sky!
★ Fast and accurate live mode with Kalman filter technology (requires a compass / magnetometer in the device)
★ Star map mode with planar projection, analogous to astronomical clocks and medieval astrolabes
★ The positions of the Sun, Moon and the planets incl. Pluto
★ The 9096 brightest stars (Bright Star Catalog) and the 88 constellations of the IAU
★ Rise, set times and transit times for all celestial objects, accurate to the minute
★ Moon phases and phases of the planets; retrogradicity of planets
★ Numerical position data for stars and solar system objects in the ecliptic, equatorial and horizontal coordinate system; heliocentric, geocentric as well as topocentric
★ Graphical representation of the ecliptic and the positions of the zodiac signs (only in star map mode)
★ Real-time display or manually scroll in any centuries
★ Automatically determine geographic coordinates of the observer or manually select and save via map
★ Calculation of local solar time, local sidereal time and Greenwich sidereal time
★ Colors of the stars according to their spectral type
★ Night mode (monochrome black/red)