StargazingPal is a new mobile application designed to assist astronomers in planning and optimizing their stargazing and astrophotography sessions. By combining sky mapping, session planning, and weather forecasting in one app, it simplifies the process of observing and photographing celestial objects. With a user-friendly interface and advanced features, the app provides real-time sky maps, weather forecasts, object visibility tracking, and session planning tools.
As the publisher notes, “The inspiration for developing StargazingPal came from my frequent drives to suburban areas for stargazing. Given the considerable distance from the city, I need to carefully evaluate weather conditions beforehand. Since most of the features I required were scattered across various applications and websites, checking them individually proved cumbersome. Therefore, I decided to integrate all commonly used functionalities into an APP.
Key features of StargazingPal include:
Global Astronomical Conditions
– Forecast weather conditions for any location worldwide
– Nighttime and Hourly Stargazing Index Calculation
– Precise rise and set times for the Sun, Moon, and other planets
– Detailed Moon phase calendar
Asteroid Tracking
– Forecast the five nearest asteroids to Earth
– Track specific asteroids with detailed distance measurements
– Calculate visibility windows with precise altitude and azimuth angles
– Personalized viewing schedules based on your location
Advanced Weather Tools
– Almost real-time satellite cloud maps
– Almost real-time Ground-based weather radar maps
– Global cloud coverage hourly forecast maps
Location Intelligence
– Integrated Bortle Scale dark sky map
– Light pollution analysis for any location
– Detailed site-specific observation conditions
Event Planning
– Year-round astronomical event calendar
– Meteor shower predictions and peak times
– Aurora forecast with activity levels (Kp index)
– Milky Way forecast
Upcoming Features
– New satellite cloud map (Current third-party satellite imagery has threshold filtering issues that fail to display thin cloud coverage in certain countries)
– Comet tracking
StargazingPal is available for iOS devices. An Android version is planned for future release. You can learn more here.
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