← CelestQuest

CelestQuest

Hold your iPhone up to the sky and see what's there.

Getting started

The first time you open CelestQuest it asks for two things:

• Camera, to show the real sky behind the names.
• Location, to work out which stars and planets are above you.

Then hold your iPhone up to the sky. Rings mark the stars, planets and Moon around you. Put anything in the centre circle to see what it is and how far away it is.

Things to try

• Find: tap the magnifier, ask "Where is Saturn?" and tap it in the list. An arrow leads you there. If it's below the horizon, CelestQuest tells you when and where it comes up.
• Sky tour: a guided trip through the best things up right now, read aloud.
• Close-up: hold something in the circle for 3 seconds to dive in, and see where it is in the Milky Way.
• Listen: hear the sky as a music box. Play tonight turns the whole night into a short song.
• Night vision: the eye button at the top right turns the names, maps and buttons red, so your eyes stay used to the dark.

If the names don't sit on the real stars

Phone compasses are often a few degrees off, and more near cars, metal, or magnetic cases and wallets.

1. Step away from cars and metal, and take your iPhone out of a magnetic case or wallet if you can.
2. If your iPhone asks you to move it around to calibrate the compass, do it.
3. Then line up: tap the layers button at the bottom right, choose Line up with the real sky, put the real Moon (or a bright planet or star) in the circle and tap Done. Undo line-up is in the same place.

The camera shows only a few stars

That's normal. Phone cameras pick up only the brightest stars, the planets and the Moon. The rings show where everything is, even what the camera misses. A darker spot away from street lights helps, and so does giving your eyes 15 minutes to adjust.

In daylight

CelestQuest works in the daytime too: it shows where the Moon, planets and stars are while daylight hides them. Never look at the Sun, with or without your phone.

No signal?

Everything works offline. The stars, planets and Moon are worked out on your iPhone. Only the space stations' orbits are refreshed online. After about three weeks without a connection, the stations are hidden rather than shown in the wrong place.

Turned off the camera or location by mistake?

Open Settings on your iPhone, then Apps › CelestQuest, and turn on Camera and Location (While Using the App). Without location you can still tap the place name at the top of the screen and pick a city.

Privacy

CelestQuest doesn't collect anything about you: no accounts, ads, analytics or tracking. Read the privacy policy.