Updated for iOS 26 - Scope Nights helps you find the clearest, darkest skies for stargazing on the latest iPhone and iPad devices.
Clearer Nights Ahead with Scope Nights Astronomy Weather...
Scope Nights helps stargazers, astronomers, and astrophotographers find the clearest, darkest skies. Instead of analysing conventional weather forecasts yourself, Scope Nights does the work for you, showing exactly when and where conditions will be best for observing the night sky.
"Every amateur astronomer yearns for clear, dark skies, and this exhaustive app helps you find them." - Sky At Night Magazine
"Scope Nights has become my favorite… it does a fine job of summarizing the data in a clear and understandable fashion." - Sky & Telescope Magazine
Plan Your Observing
• Smart stargazing ratings with animated weather icons
• Custom thresholds for moon phase, wind, humidity, and temperature
• Compare conditions across your favourite observing sites
Find Dark Sky Sites
• Detailed light pollution map from NASA satellite data
• Certified dark sky places, observatories, and robotic telescopes
Detailed Global Forecasts
• Long‑range forecasts worldwide (up to 7 nights, 7 locations)
• Local forecasts for UK & USA direct from Met Office & NOAA
• Night‑time specific data: cloud cover, moon phase, humidity, wind, temperature, sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset
Notifications & Sharing
• Custom alerts for good observing conditions before sunset
• App badge showing tonight’s best sites
• Share astronomy weather reports with friends or observatories
Requirements
• iOS 15 or later
• Internet connection (Wi-Fi or cellular)
• Location Services to provide local stargazing forecasts and notifications. No personal data is collected, and no tracking occurs.
• Background Services for local notifications. Notifications are used only to alert you about good stargazing conditions, they are not used for advertising or tracking.
Scope Nights is independently developed. Your reviews and ratings help sustain future updates for the stargazing community.
It works but you don’t really getting a lot of value
passionworks
When it was first installed, I got lots of errors about not being able to save location information. Sent a tech support request and got nothing back. The error is now gone but it doesn’t always save my location but I guess my biggest grip is you don’t really get anything that isn’t already free with other apps. It has potential, but hey seriously need to add more features for the price they charge. I guess that is why there is not a trial version.
Needs work
PolynomialHierarchy
I use an app called “Good To Stargaze”, which is free, and for a nominal fee allows one to save 5 sites. That app is very succinct and intuitive in its forecasts and presentation. Scope Nights offers much of the same information, and has a more colorful interface, and it has some basic stability issues. When connecting to the Internet to get weather information, the app can hang. When the connection times out, it sometimes crashes out to the “Finder”. I like that you can look up known dark sky sites and observatories, and add - evidently - dozens of custom sites. However, when the app is new, it seems to store every map position you navigate to, and your current location is stored dozens of times, and you cannot add new sites because the max number has been reached. I manually deleted all of these sites, which took several minutes (needs a delete all interface), and afterward it worked as expected. Not recommended over Good To Stargaze, and it does mostly work, but has the drawbacks mentioned above.
Outdated and broken - do not buy in 2023
Until the moon rises
Save your money - don’t buy this broken app. Scope Nights received awards years ago. It was once one of the best astronomy forecast apps. However, a global forecasts update broke it over a year and a half ago and it still hasn’t been fixed.You can still use the app for forecasts but if you save any locations as favorites, you’ll receive annoying pop ups that you need to close - for every location, every time you open the app. Even if you don’t save any favorites, this will still happen for your current location. This makes the app very annoying to use - and unusable with many favorites. The fact that the developer is charging $4.99 for this app without even a word on an update in over a year and a half is honestly messed up. I get that it’s just one guy maintaining it in his free time but this app should be free in its current state. Lack of resources doesn’t excuse poor quality.
Not helpful for my location
GFreeBeBe
I work at a dark sky park and love to recommend apps. We do sky tours weekly and I use about 6 locations for weather data. Sky and telescope recommended the app so I bought it. None of the towns within a 40 mile radius are locations that will give me data. I was able to find my park listed on the location finder but our data is “unable to access”
Scope Nights 2.6 Update:
• Optimized for iOS 26 and the latest iPhone and iPad models
• Smoother planning with improved stability and performance
• Higher-resolution data for national and global astronomy forecasts
• Refreshed listings for Dark Sky Places, Observatories, and Robotic Telescopes
• Fixed global forecast outage
• UI refinements and general bug fixes
Scope Nights is independently developed. Your reviews and ratings help sustain future updates for the stargazing community.
Version 2.6.0
The developer, Martin Dodd, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Martin Dodd
Size
177.7 MB
Category
Weather
Compatibility
Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 15.0 or later.
iPod touch Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.