Field Mode is here — a free on-site companion with red-light guidance, live countdowns, moon context, and Apple Watch support.
Plan the clearest, darkest nights for Milky Way, Moon, meteor, and night-sky photography. Dark Skies helps photographers decide when tonight is worth shooting with Best Nights, smart alerts, widgets, weather forecasts, astronomical dark windows, AR sky guidance, saved locations, and fast exposure tools — with no ads and no account required.
Built for DSLR, mirrorless, and film photographers, Dark Skies gives you practical field tools without unnecessary complexity. Check upcoming shooting conditions, find the best nights, calculate your maximum shutter speed, save camera and lens profiles, and use AR guidance to frame the Galactic Core, Moon, and key night-sky targets.
Features:
• Best Nights for planning upcoming shoots
• Smart alerts for excellent shooting conditions
• Milky Way and Galactic Core planning
• AR sky guidance for framing night-sky shots
• Moon phase, rise, set, and visibility tools
• Astronomical twilight and dark-window timing
• Nightly weather forecasts
• Star exposure calculator with Balanced and Sharper modes
• Support for DSLR, mirrorless, and film camera setups
• Custom camera and lens profiles
• Saved locations for planning future shoots
• iCloud sync across your devices
• Widgets for quick planning
• No ads
• No account required
• Privacy-first design
Whether you are shooting your first night landscape or scouting your next Milky Way composition, Dark Skies gives you the essential planning tools to spend less time guessing and more time shooting.
I thought this app was dead, then this huge update shows up! AND no more ads! Fantastic work!
Usefully but niche tool
CD159207
If your lens is supported, this is a useful tool to have if you do a lot of night time photography. That being said, it's an oddly specific tool if you don't do a lot of night time photography. Works as advertised, would like to see support for more lenses.
Useless program
747whaledriver
There are only three choices for the Canon camera; you have no real input as to what camera or ISO setting you are using; every 4-5 seconds, another ad pops up disrupting your use of the program, no matter how many times you decline a purchase for the same item. Very annoying as an app. Developer doesn't know the difference between the word add (a verb) and ad, short for advertisement: this should be a red flag right here.Absolutely useless as a tool for the professional. Erased my copy: I already have a calculator.
Developer Response
Thank you for the feedback, and I’m sorry the earlier version created such a poor experience. Dark Skies has since been completely rebuilt: all ads have been removed, camera and lens profiles are customizable, and the app now includes nightly planning, forecasts, AR sky guidance, and updated exposure tools.
Literally unusable
rbodgers
No matter what you are doing, a full screen ad takes over the screen every 12 seconds. Sometimes you can immediately dismiss it, other times you have to watch the first few seconds of a video ad, and still other times you have to wait quite a while to dismiss an ad.I’m serious. I timed it. Every twelve seconds.And the worst part: these ads happen even during the “first launch” tutorial. It took me several minutes to get through the short, 4-screen tutorial because ads kept taking over before I could finish reading each step.Literally unusable. If the developer had this little regard for my experience during the tutorial of what amounts to the trial version, there’s no way I’m paying to find out of the rest of the app actually works well.
Developer Response
Thank you for the feedback, and I’m sorry the earlier version created such a poor experience. Dark Skies has since been completely rebuilt: all ads have been removed, camera and lens profiles are customizable, and the app now includes nightly planning, forecasts, AR sky guidance, and updated exposure tools.
Dark Skies 4.9.1 is a focused reliability and polish update.
• Field Mode refinements for a smoother night-shooting experience
• Your exposure calculator settings now stay saved between sessions
• Improved purchase restoration and offline messaging
• Small UI, accessibility, and stability improvements across Tonight, Best Nights, and Forecast
Thanks for using Dark Skies—and clear skies!
Version 4.9.1
The developer, Nathan Stryker, 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 Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Usage Data
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More