Astrarium is a planisphere and astronomical simulator for
iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Apple Watch. Choose a place and a time and it draws that sky — not only
the sky now, but any past or future one, with planetary phases, eclipses, meteor
showers and comets on the same chart.
Every position is computed on the device (JPL DE421, the IAU
precession and nutation models, IERS Earth orientation), so the whole app works
where there is no signal. No ads, no account.
All-sky and horizon views, pinch-zoom down to an arc minute; press the
button again to choose the projection (stereographic, orthographic,
Aitoff and more). Aitoff draws the whole sphere on one chart, below the
horizon at the same strength as above
Drive the clock: any date, ×1 to ×6000 playback, the synodic month, a
calendar. Every date and time is the time at the observing site
Tap anything and the figures follow the clock
Planet close-ups with the rings and moons, and the physical data
Meteor shower calendar with an expected rate that accounts for the
radiant altitude, twilight and moonlight
Comets and asteroids from the MPC and JPL
One screen for the observing site: drag a map (OpenStreetMap), type the
latitude, longitude and altitude, or save up to ten places by name
Fold the bottom controls and the side panel away when you want the chart
whole; pressing play at the top speed steps back down a rung at a time
Four coordinate grids, FOV frames, night-vision mode, PNG/PDF export,
a captioned demo, polar alignment
On Apple Watch (watchOS 10.0 or later, installed with the
iPhone app) there are two screens: Tonight — twilight, the Moon, the planets up
with their bearing and altitude, the next satellite pass and any shower running —
and a star chart holding the whole sky in one disc, which the Digital Crown moves
up to twelve hours either way. Chapter 12 of the iPhone and iPad manual covers
it.
Astrarium Pro, a separate app, adds satellites (chart, world
map and globe, with visible-pass predictions), AR — the chart drawn over the
camera image — the aurora forecast (NASA DONKI and NOAA OVATION), the deep-sky
catalogue and a wider event search.