AstroTool: Night Sky Planner
Night Sky Planner & Logger
Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
Start free. Upgrade once, own it forever. Live sky map, Messier catalog, night planner, astrophotography calculator, and session logger — all on-device.
AstroTool — Astrophotography Planner & Sky Map
Plan better. Shoot more. Miss nothing.
AstroTool is the complete astrophotography companion for iPhone — from scouting tonight's targets to logging every capture. A live sky map you can actually use in the field, planning tools built around how astrophotographers think, and a session logger that keeps your imaging history in one place.
FREE FEATURES
Sky Map
A fully rendered live sky chart with 100+ bright stars, all 110 Messier objects, the Sun, Moon, and all planets. Constellation lines, constellation name labels, the Milky Way band, and the ecliptic arc are all drawn in real time. Tap any object for instant identification — name, type, magnitude, and position. Procedural rolling-hill horizon with compass ticks and cardinal labels. Motion-driven so the sky moves as you move.
Deep Sky Catalog
Browse the complete Messier catalog with search, type filters, and sort by ID, magnitude, or altitude. Every object shows rise, transit, and set times for your location, a visibility chart for tonight, and your full capture history for that target. Mark favorites and pick up right where you left off.
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Planner
Everything you need before you head out. Moon phase and illumination with an imaging impact rating. Full twilight schedule — civil, nautical, and astronomical dusk and dawn with total dark-sky hours. All visible planets with live altitude and transit times. Jupiter's Galilean moons in a live canvas diagram. Best targets tonight ranked by a composite altitude and moon-separation score. Target schedule to plan your imaging windows object by object.
Astrophotography Calculator
Field of view for your exact sensor and focal length with sensor presets for Full Frame, APS-C, Micro 4/3, and custom. Unguided exposure limits via the 500, 400, and 300 rules for fixed tripod, tracking mount, and guided setups. Integration time calculator with sub count and a signal quality indicator.
Session Logger
Log every observing session with sky conditions — Bortle scale, seeing, and transparency. Add individual captures with exposure length, sub count, gain, filter, equipment, reference path, and a star rating. Total integration time tracked automatically. Export any session as formatted text to share or archive. Full equipment manager for telescopes and cameras with sensor specs, focal length, and reducer support.
Target Schedule
Build a nightly imaging plan by scheduling capture windows for specific catalog objects. Log past captures directly from the schedule. Mark targets done as you work through the night.
Events & Alerts
Upcoming meteor showers with ZHR and peak dates, lunar phases, planet oppositions and conjunctions, greatest elongations, and solstices and equinoxes. Notification support so you never miss an event.
Polar Alignment Guide & Pre-Session Checklist
Step-by-step polar alignment instructions and a fully customisable pre-session checklist with presets covering setup, camera, focusing, guiding, imaging, calibration, and wrap-up.
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All calculations run on-device using your GPS location. No data is sent anywhere.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Sky Map
DSO taps open a full action sheet: Details, Schedule Capture, Favorite, Log
Any drag or pinch/zoom puts the map into manual mode — motion tracking pauses, a "Locked" indicator appears in the toolbar in orange
The recenter button turns orange when locked to signal it'll resume live tracking when tapped
Landscape layout improvements — popup repositions to top-left, compass and readouts scale down, alt/az bar gets more room
Tab bar hides labels in landscape (compact height mode) so the map isn't crowded
Double Stars (Brand New)
63 double stars loaded from a new doublestars.json catalog (starts with Albireo)
Full data per star: primary & secondary magnitude, separation in arcseconds, position angle, star colors, constellation, and difficulty rating
New DoubleStar model in AstroModels.swift
CatalogService now loads double stars alongside Messier/deep sky objects
Catalog
New Deep Sky / Double Stars segmented picker at the top — switches the whole catalog view between modes
Double Stars list: searchable by name, designation, or constellation
Difficulty filter (Easy / Moderate / Challenging / Very Difficult)
Tapping a double star opens a detail sheet
Sorted by primary magnitude by default
AstroMath
Galilean moon positions — Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto relative to Jupiter
Planet events calculator — upcoming oppositions, conjunctions, and greatest elongations for all 5 planets
Equipment
Reducer/barlow multiplier, sensor width/height, pixel size, and resolution (MP) all added to the Equipment profile form
Equipment list rows now show a detail line: aperture · effective focal length · sensor size · pixel size
The developer, luciano cavazos, 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.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- luciano cavazos
- Size
- 2.9 MB
- Category
- Utilities
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 17.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- In-App Purchases
Yes
- AstroTool Premium Unlock $4.99
- Copyright
- © 2026 Luciano Cavazos