APP REVIEW

Tour the night sky with this handy app, an essential piece of kit for seamless navigation

Ian Evenden

S ky Tonight comes from Vito Technology, the same company which brought us Star Walk 2, and like that app it provides a view of the night sky and the wonders you can see in it. At first glance, you’d be forgiven for wondering whether someone had slipped up and accidentally released the same app twice. They both depict the night sky, both allow you to raise your camera to the heavens to identify something and both let you look up information on what you’re looking at.

The app can show what to look out for on a certain night

So what’s the difference? Sky Tonight is more focused on the identification of objects than on visual effects and 3D models. It brings together a lot of disparate information in one place and can predict your likely chances of success on a stargazing expedition based on weather and light pollution, as well as the phase of the Moon and time of sunset. The other half of the app concentrates on what you can see, bringing the bright stars and planets into sharp focus with lots of information about their history, lore and the times they’ll rise over the horizon over the next month. It even tips you off about events such as conjunctions and occultations. In brief, it’s one of the best stargazing apps currently available. The app’s home page is its map. It uses your location to display the stars as you see them in real time. Hold your device up, move it around and it will move too, showing you the stars in whichever direction you choose, both above and below the horizon.