Sky Map turns your Android device into a window on the night sky. Point it in any direction and you’ll see a real-time star map of what’s there — stars, planets, constellations, and more.
Hold your phone up and look through it like a window into space. Sky Map uses your phone’s compass, accelerometer, and gyroscope to track where you’re pointing and update the map in real time.
Not all phones are capable of running Sky Map!
If this is your first time:
In Automatic Mode (the default), Sky Map uses your phone’s sensors to show whatever is in the direction your phone is pointing. Just move your phone around and the map follows.
Tap the sensor/compass icon in the controls to switch to Manual Mode. In this mode you can:
Manual mode is handy when you want to explore the sky without holding your phone up.
Sky Map organizes what it shows into layers, each of which can be toggled on or off independently. Tap the screen to reveal the layer controls on the side — they glow orange when a layer is on and appear dim when off.
| Layer | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Stars | The brightest stars, with labels for notable ones |
| Constellations | Constellation outlines and names |
| Messier Objects | Deep-sky objects: galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters |
| Planets | The planets of our solar system, displayed as images |
| Meteor Showers | Active and upcoming meteor shower radiant points |
| Ecliptic & RA/Dec Grid | The Ecliptic is the Sun’s annual path through the sky |
| Horizon | The horizon line and cardinal direction labels (N, S, E, W) |
Worth knowing: Sky Map shows the geometric horizon — a perfectly flat, unobstructed view. Objects just above it may still be hidden by buildings, hills, or trees in practice.
Tap anywhere on the screen to show or hide the controls. On one side you’ll find the layer toggles described above. On the other side is the button to switch between Automatic and Manual modes.
The controls fade out automatically after a few seconds to keep the view clear.
Tap the magnifying glass icon to search for anything in the sky. You can search for:
In Automatic Mode: after selecting a result, Sky Map shows a targeting circle and a directional arrow. Follow the arrow by rotating your phone — the circle changes from blue to red, then orange when the object is within your field of view. Tap the ✕ to exit search.
In Manual Mode: the map simply jumps to center on the object.
Time Travel lets you see the sky at any moment from the year 1900 to 2100. Select the swirly circles Time Travel icon from the action bar.
You can choose a preset date (solstices, eclipses, famous celestial events, historical moments) or enter your own date and time. Tap Go! to fly there.
Once in Time Travel mode, the date is shown on screen and playback controls let you move through time:
Some things you can use it for:
Accuracy decreases for dates far from the present, mainly due to the gravitational influence of Jupiter.
Tap any labeled celestial object on the sky map to bring up an info card — a panel with a photo and details about that object. Info cards are available for 150+ objects including stars, planets, the Moon, Messier deep-sky objects, and constellations.
Each card shows:
Tap the image inside the card to view it fullscreen. Dismiss the card by tapping outside it or pressing Back.
Enabling info cards: By default they only appear when you are in Manual Mode; go to settings to enable them while in Automatic (sensor-driven) Mode.
The Gallery contains a collection of images from the Hubble Space Telescope and other sources. Open it from the main menu.
Browse thumbnails by scrolling, and tap one to see the full image. Use the Find in sky button to jump to Search mode and locate that object in your current sky map.
If you’re outside doing real observing, Night Vision mode helps preserve your dark-adapted eyesight. Toggle it from the action bar by tapping the eye-shaped Night Vision icon.
In Night Vision mode, Sky Map:
Toggle it again to return to normal. The Screen Dimming option under Settings → Appearance gives you additional control over how dark the screen gets.
Sky Map needs your approximate location to draw the correct sky. By default it uses your device’s location services (mobile network or GPS). If you don’t it will place you at (0, 0) which is in the middle of the ocean!
If location access is unavailable or you’d rather set it manually, go to Settings → Location and either:
If you’ve previously denied Sky Map location permission, you may need to re-enable it in your device’s App Settings → Permissions.
Under Settings → Sensor Settings, change the View Direction to Pointer Mode. In this mode, Sky Map shows what the long edge of the phone is pointing at, rather than what the screen is facing.
This lets you mount your phone along the side of a telescope tube so the screen is perpendicular to the tube while the map still tracks what the telescope is aimed at.
Not all devices can fully support Sky Map! At the very least you need a phone with
Ideally:
Phone compasses are notoriously troublesome. If Sky Map is not showing the sky accurately it’s almost always a hardware issue with the compass, not an issue with Sky Map. See the troubleshooting section for some things that might help.
If you open Sky Map’s diagnostics page any sensors that you don’t have will show up as “–,–,–”.
Sky Map will fall back into ‘manual mode’. You can still explore the sky, but without the sensors there is no way any app can show you your direction.
See troubleshooting.md for full details. Here’s a quick reference:
Sky Map needs three things to show the correct sky: the direction your phone is facing, your location, and the current time. If the map looks wrong, one of these is likely off.
For full troubleshooting details see the online troubleshooting guide.
If you’re still stuck, email us at skymapdevs@gmail.com — a screenshot of your Diagnostics page is very helpful.