For millennia, humans have peered into the night sky in an attempt to understand—or maybe just marvel at—the cosmos. Although there’s a simple beauty in experiencing stars and planets with the naked eye, we’ve devised enhancements along the way, whether polished crystals in ancient times or telescopes during the Renaissance. But these approaches have got nothing on stargazing apps.
Whether you are a beginner or an experienced stargazer, you can immerse yourself in the mythology of constellations, experience the swirling gas and dust of a nebula, even catch a close-up of a satellite in space with stargazing apps. The ones that follow offer otherworldly opportunities to explore—and understand—objects in the night sky. Most apps offer a free version.
The 6 Best Stargazing Apps
1. Night Sky, $5.99 (premium version)
Lauded as the “overall most popular stargazing app on iOS,” Night Sky provides a truly humbling experience of the cosmos. The free app includes a real-time sky map that updates as you move your device, as well as a virtual reality feature that lets you explore…
