Sky Live: Heavens Above Viewer 4+

Hands down the first thing I check before I head out for the evening.

If it looks like a good night for viewing I'll generally bring along my camera just in case I find a decent shot.

At the very least it's a great way to introduce friends and family to the night sky. The app provides a way to show them a thing or two about the sky above while giving them a resource to help them gauge wether or not stargazing is possible on any given evening. This app and others like it are a powerful educational and inspirational tool that can really open up a whole new world for most people. It certainly did for me.

This app seems to be a nice looking, peek into the current conditions at your location, I’ll give it that. The BIGGEST HINDERANCE is that there is such limited searchable locations, it basically cripples the app. If you need to travel to “X” location (possibly hours away), but want to check star gazing, weather, and visibility conditions beforehand? Better make sure you’re only going to a location available on their list. Otherwise, you’ll find you cannot search for common towns, locations, areas, or even GPS coordinates and get their relative info (at least in the US, I have not tried other countries). This has issue has been reported by other users over a year ago and still has not been fixed. This one issue alone makes it NOT WORTH IT to get this app for the .99 cents it costs for the “pro” features, heck it makes it not worth it for the free one either. But I guess, in theory, if you’ve done research on other better apps/services and then, got on-location to view magnificent night skies, this would do a good job to tell you once you got there that you’ve got “great stargazing conditions.”

I lead Astronomy and Cosmology study groups as an employee of Oakland Community College and stargaze on my own time as well. I use Sky Live (and Stellarium freeware) in tandem when planning stargazing sessions and when aiding students in learning the night sky. I have used at least 20 different apps over the last 4 years, but Sky Live is the ONLY stargazing app that resides at the ready on my iPhone’s first screen. I recommend buying the full version to know at a glance when the ISS will grace your stargazing sessions with its presence.