Monday: The Best Total Solar Eclipse of the Century

This Monday, August 21st there will be a rare occurrence and a sight to behold: the best total solar eclipse in nearly 100 years. A partial solar eclipse will be visible anywhere in North America Monday, and in certain states a total solar eclipse will be visible.

If you’re in Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, or Wyoming you’ll be able to view the total solar eclipse. If you’re not in any of these states you’ll still be able to see a partial solar eclipse (and it’ll be just as exciting).

Please, use caution when viewing the eclipse! Visit here to read more about eye safety.

And don’t forget to pickup your copy of SkyView to see exactly where and when the sun will be in the sky!

For more information, head over to NASA’s total eclipse website. 

Get ready for an action packed weekend in the sky!

This year’s Perseid meteor shower will be most visible this Friday and Saturday nights (August 11th and 12th) in the Northern hemisphere.

Due to the full moon this weekend, this year won’t offer quite the spectacle but it’ll still be worth it to head outside and take a look at the shower.

Download SkyView and search for the Perseus constellation to easily find where in the sky the event will take place – happy stargazing!

Snow Moon + Lunar Eclipse

This year’s Snow Moon (February Full Moon) will coincide a penumbral lunar eclipse making for a rare celestial event that is easily observable from many locations across the world. A few minutes after the Snow Moon peaks this Friday night, Earth will also cast its shadow onto the Moon’s surface during a penumbral lunar eclipse. If you live in North America, Europe, Asia, or Africa then make sure you don’t miss this event occurring at 7:43 p.m. EST February 10th.

Easily find and track this eclipse using SkyView on iOS and Android! Simply search for the Moon in the app to view its trajectory for the entire day and night.

Don’t Miss the Largest Supermoon since 1948

In a few days, Sunday, November 13th and Monday, November 14th, you’ll be able to catch the largest supermoon since 1948 – and there won’t be another like it until 2034. It’s best to spot the supermoon Monday morning right before dawn but almost equally as well either night.

Best stated by Wikipedia: “A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the lunar disk as seen from Earth.” 

Grab SkyView for iOS or Android and plan exactly where and when to spot the supermoon for either (or both) of these days!

2016 Perseid Meteor Shower

One of this year’s biggest events in the sky is about to happen!

This year’s Perseid meteor shower will most visible between midnight and dawn on August 11th in the Northern hemisphere. Of course you have the best view of the shower when out of the city (with minimal light pollution) but even if you’re in the city be sure to look for the Perseus constellation and the shower will be right in view.

Grab SkyView to easily find where in the sky the event will take place and head outside tonight for one of the year’s best shows in the sky!

SkyView 3.5.0 with New iOS 9 Features

Our latest release of SkyView introduces features that take advantage of new iOS 9 technologies, 3D Touch and Spotlight Search  — COMING VERY SOON!

Use 3D Touch on the SkyView icon to quickly access your favorite sky objects, search, and a quick shortcut to Tonight’s Sightings (a list of planets, stars and satellites visible in your location that night).

In addition we now support Spotlight search. To use Spotlight, just swipe down on your home screen and search for your favorite celestial object like Gemini, ISS, Capella, or Orion. When you touch a SkyView search result, SkyView will open and select the object.  

We’ve also made some other improvements under the hood and have some great updates planned for 2016.

Happy stargazing, everyone!

2015 Geminids Meteor Shower

Get ready for one of the year’s best meteor showers this weekend! 

To locate the Geminids meteor shower using SkyView, simply select the Magnifying Glass icon in the upper right and search for the Gemini constellation in the early evening either Sunday, December 13th or Monday, December 14th.

The Geminids meteor shower appears to radiate from the Gemini constellation, specifically in the area northeast of the stars Pollux and Castor (you can also search for these in SkyView), and is one of the few meteor showers not originating from a comet.

More information: wikipedia.org/wiki/Geminids

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, don’t miss the annual Perseid meteor shower peaking tonight!

To locate the meteor shower using SkyView, simply select the Magnifying Glass icon in the upper right and search for the Perseus constellation around 10:00 pm Pacific time tonight. The shower will continue all night until morning but will be most visible around 1:00 am Pacific time with activity peaking up to 100 visible meteors per hour!

The Perseid meteor shower appears to radiate from the Perseus constellation in the night sky hence its name and consists of thousand year old particles broken away from the Swift-Tuttle comet.

More information: wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids

SkyView now on Amazon Appstore

We’re happy to announce SkyView is now available on the Amazon Appstore! If you have an account head over and pickup SkyView for Android now:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010KZGP9Y

SkyView now on Apple Watch.

Our latest version, 3.3, out now on the App Store brings with it many improvements to SkyView, but most notably the inclusion of our brand new Apple Watch app! Using our Sightings Engine, SkyView for Apple Watch always displays an up-to-date view of what’s visible in the sky.

Getting people outside to see the stars, planets, constellations and satellites has always been our goal with SkyView and our new Apple Watch app makes this even easier:

Home View

The main app view shows you a list, ordered by time, of the brightest and best things to see in the sky each night. Quickly scroll through the list to see their visible time window. Tapping on each shows a detail view with description on its location in the sky, time until visible and a button to set viewing notifications.

Glance

Fitting right in with the rest of your Glances, SkyView shows a quick snippet of the next visible sky object for your location and where it’s visible in the sky. Tap the glance to quickly see a countdown timer for when the object is visible.

Notifications

Schedule system notifications for any upcoming sky object sighting to receive a subtle alert on your watch. Never miss that International Space Station streaking through the sky!

Handoff

SkyView takes advantage of Apple’s Handoff technology to let you quickly find space objects using SkyView on your iPhone. When viewing any space object on your watch, swipe up on your iPhone’s lock screen to automatically start SkyView and have it point to exactly where that space object is in the sky.

We’ve spent quite a lot of time designing SkyView for the Apple Watch and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do! 

Now get out there and get stargazing :)