Mobile Observatory Free - Astronomy
If you want the ad-free version, please visit
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zima.mobileobservatorypro
Do you want to know if the next lunar eclipse is visible from your location or when the next bright comet is visible? Would you like to be notified by your smart phone next time, Jupiter and the Moon meet in the sky? Do you want to know what the blazing bright object in the evening sky is? Do you want to be always up-to-date which celestial events that are visible from your location? Then this app is a must-have for you!
Mobile Observatory does not only include a live, zoomable sky map which tells you what sky object you are looking at but provides you with loads of detailed extra information on stars, planets, deep sky objects, meteor showers, asteroids, lunar and solar eclipses as well as detailed ephemeris of all included sky objects and an interactive top-down view of the Solar System. All that in just one app!
Mobile Observatory Free is the free version of the successful astronomy app Mobile Observatory Pro, which is available for purchase on Google Play.
The key features of MO Free are as follows:
- Photo-realistic display of the night and day sky with correctly illuminated landscape. Its the only app on Android which renders the sky physically correct, taking into account atmospheric scattering. Only the real sky is more beautiful...
- 30000 stars to magnitude 7
- 3D-view of the Solar System
- Automatically created calendar of celestial events
- Map of the Earth showing day and night
- Automatic calculation of interesting celestial events for your location
- Daily notifications of current celestial events
- 1000 minor planets
- All 88 constellations
- Messier and Caldwell catalogs (220 Deep Sky objects)
- ... and much much more...
Mobile Observatory displays the current view of the sky, the times of rise and set of any object, current positions, and apparent views of the planets, twilight times, moon phases, celestial events (such as conjunctions and eclipses), a 3D-view of the Solar System and much more. Use Live Mode to point your device to the sky and find out what you are looking at using the orientation sensors or get daily notifications of celestial events.
Mobile Observatory currently includes data for the Sun, Moon, seven planets + Pluto, a built-in star catalog of more than 30000 stars (to magnitude 7), the Messier catalog (110 objects), and the Caldwell catalog (110 objects). The orientation sensors of your device can be used to use Mobile Observatory as a guide to the sky via Live Mode.
Category : Education
Reviews (30)
A fantastic star chart up! The best I have come across. Probably buying the Pro version. Love the "Save Location" option, Love the 3D solar system and all the additional tools that you can jump to so easily. The controls take a bit of getting used to. Was wondering: is it worth considering the function to add your own "Useful Links" to that option? And a web version? Does that exist at all? One of the competition has a Beta version of a web app under development and it is a good option.
Looks like it's full of info. That's good. The bad is the interface. While centered on Jupiter there's an icon toggle to show the planets path across the sky. Cool, I want to see that so I touch it. Up comes a box with lots of choices of different times to draw the line. Touch one and up comes a line. Under the box. Touch anywhere on screen and away goes the box. Taking the line with it. Guess there's something I don't know about Android apps and don't want to waste time trying to figure it out.
Found this app by chance on the app store. It is a great app with so many features and so well presented. It has replaced three other apps which did the same things but not so well. The sky view is a work of art, the events calendar very comprehensive and there are all sorts of other goodies, such as a display of Jupiter's moons with a list of events. Also a comprehensive solar activity page. The number of features mean you have to take care to set it up, but well worth the effort.
Used version 2 for as long as I can remember. Seems like I paid for an upgrade at some point but I can't be certain. Version 3 ads are too intrusive and, because the app uses my location data, I can't be certain of that data not being passed along to the same in app ads. I wanted to try 3 to find out if I would buy the pro version but I guess I'll be sticking with the previous version for now.
The complete sky view experience that no other apps can provide. Its interface may not look very visually appealing or fancy, but wait, you will forget about it once you really get to know this app. I compared this with more than 5 other apps, and uninstalled them all, as this application has everything and more than what other apps do. Everything is customisable. Perfect for any beginner or advanced sky watcher. Not a loss even if Pro version is bought.
Two notifications a day would be perfect. One in the morning for celestial events occurring during daylight hours. And (naturally) another notification towards evening highlighting celestial events occurring during nighttime hours. That seems like an option worth seeing implemented, because of its straight forward logic. How many notifications do you prefer all throughout the day and night? Constantly is as though a harassment. For the time being, I have opted out of that (wonderful) feature.
It seems to have potential, yet it is clueless where I am located. Efforts to manually input were not intuitive, failed to save, and allowed only rounded numbers. Methods for obtaining location automatically by GPS or WiFi stated their precision but were off by approximately 60 miles geographically. I'm going to continue to fiddle with it a bit on the chance I'm wrong, but if I'm 60 miles from my real location everything will be off.
This is a very very tricky app to learn to use If you don't know how to use it properly it can be extraordinary frustrating. It has tons of features but if you check a box or adjust a setting of which there are very many it will be very frustrating to find objects and then to figure out what setting to go back and reset. You really need to study this and it features and take notes as you make changes to settings so you can go back and unravel any number of frustrating changes
I love this app. So many free features and a comprehensive format. I also get notifications for events like meteor showers or the best time to view various planets. When I was in school the curriculum did not include anything but very basic astronomy. Now I find I want to know everything! I've discovered something about myself , it's in the stars.
Im giving it a 3* because as a novice, I'm not sure how to use this. However, in "my location" via GPS, it has zero resemblance. Rocky and mountainous displays yet i live on the coast of Lake Michigan! You can read other reviews with the EXACT SAME complaint! No "earth view" just blue ocean shows. So if the basics are this difficult or unexpectedly different in appearances to my location, then its basically useless. ALSO a ton of ads, one with nearly every other move i make! Ugh.
Puts me exactly where I need to go. The -/+ time and date change ability allows me to review past locations of objects or plan for that four-thirty in the morning scan and shoot. Quick and easy to understand descriptions of "those things in the sky" as the neighbors say. Cool🔭.
Disabling features for Free vs Pro versions is perfectly understandable and acceptable. But the Popup ads are so annoying and frustrating that I simply uninstall apps with ads and never try them again. It's unfortunate this app has annoying ads that popup periodically even at startup and occasionally lock the app. I may have purchased the Pro version but because of the ads I won't bother trying out the app any further.
I'm crazy interested in all cosmic things almost everything amazes me. This app helps me analyze and detecting things that probably need lots of effort and time. The most useful feature for me is "Live view" It's very easy to track constellations and other cosmic events. After graduation I plan switching to pro version. I have one request. Please add comets data to the app so we can also track comet's. I thought I can easily detect comet "neowise" using app but it was useless.
Love this app! Very easy to use and learn about everything you've dreamed or questioned. Tells you if you need binoculars, phone, or what size telescope you can see with the best. Upcoming events for your location or follow your signal to view for the night, day, week to 30 days although 14days is more ideal since weather changes so often. Thx for this.
First time when I downloaded this app, it was very good, unlike any other app on playstore which provided everything in one place without paying, but now after they have removed the calibration feature, it is as worse as any app available on playstore rn. I don't know why they removed the calibration feature, you guys should bring that back asap or I am uninstalling it.
This app has it all, feeds from our satellites watching th sun, sections to help you understand the complex way the moon orbits, star data, galaxy pictures, I think it even has a marker for Santa Claus. Mobile Observatory is the best astronomy app you can get. There are so many sections that you can lose track of time while learning so much, and that's before you even point it up to the sky. It deserves as many stars as it as in it's database.
Technically a comprehensive and useful app, but the ads are a bit too demanding, esp. when you have to watch totally irrelevant ads while waiting to download satellite data. So, four stars.
The very first time I open it, the first thing is "RATE ME". Then I get less than 30 SECONDS before the first AD takes over the whole screen. I clicked to options, and I get "RATE ME"!! then, I get a couple seconds... and... guess what I got hit with... yep, another AD!! Really?! Within the very first freaken minute I get hit with 2 ADS + 2 "RATE ME"s. LITERALLY!! Well, if they wanted me to rate it so badly WITHOUT ME CHECKING IT OUT- So Fine, I gave them what the wanted. A rating.0*
Installed it and it crashes after setting location via GPS. You cannot exit the set location screen. Eventually managed to get past the location screen and to be honest other apps do this better. Then comes the big surprise when you close it it opens stupid adverts on your phone like most rubbish free apps. I hate anything to do with adverts so refuse to allow apps on my phone that open stuff without my permission and flood my screen.
A truly helpful, very informative & user-friendly app, with wonderful graphics...and that's just the free version! I use Mobile Observatory to find the best dates, viewing times & sky-positions of the Milky-way & desired Constellations when planning my star-landscape photography sessions. I highly recommend this app.
New to the subject but find this app amazing and the window that it provides has blown my socks off. Space and it's accoutrements seems to be a pretty good size. Very hard for me to look out there and not believe in "Intelligent design".
It took a little time to learn how to use it properly but the investment in time has yeilded a wealth of information. Other astronomy programs just aren't worth the time required to get meager results, those I delete. This app I will keep and use regularly. Thanks for the time you invested in creating a great program.
I have used several astronomy apps and this is cluttered and not useful. Most basic feature of being able to hold it up and identify what is there fails. Not intuitive. You have to watch ads to get basic features to work.
I have tried many differnt apps. Very, difficult. But this one takes you step by step..I'm learning more every day. Live sky is the best. It tells you what your looking at. Thank you . I use this app on my phone, which makes things more portable for travel
Astro beginner but after trying others, the layout and grouping of functions and themes are a nice guide to enjoying the hobby. Still feeling my way around the app. After some nights of use I'm finding a lot of info to make a viewing time more rewarding Highly recommended
Very cool app with a lotta tools. One night around 2:45am I was up looking at the sky, it was clear and I saw a steady bright red-ish light and I was curious to know what it was. I figured I'd get an app to help, and this is the only app that actually had a live view that I could point my phone in the direction of what I'm looking at and identify the thing I was seeing. Turns out, that bright red-ish light was Mars! I would recommend this app!
A little overwhelming, but that's my issue, not yours. Fantastic array of info and features. Definitely a best-of-breed, but try others for simpler more readily accessible (fun for you AND the kids) info. This is a professional grade tool.
When you understand the layout and concept of the app, and when you learn how to navigate the app, especially while in live mode, take the time to download the music, the app in itself is very relaxing!
I was looking for an astronomy app which allows you to use the camera in your phone to identify objects in the sky by pointing at them, but this app doesn't have that feature. Other apps have that feature and are less expensive than this one. Too bad, because the rest of it seems pretty good.
In terms of features and functionality, this application is very rich, very informative, and comprehensive. It feels like a hundred applications worth. I would complain only about it not having the best UX design to my taste, and some minor glitches. Being so rich and spanning, it leaves me thinking of a big wishlist. I can't even recall it displaying ads to me. In a word, this app is awesome, and I would recommend it like I would a hundred really good applications.