Planets

68 of 100 · reviews
4.5of 5 · store
961ratings on the App Store
496reviews read

An editorial reading of the saved reviews

People keep it for years as a pocket planetarium: point the camera at the sky and it names planets, stars and constellations, beautifully and clearly. It breaks on accuracy after updates: some lost sunrise times, moon phase showed a day early, the 3D view went black for some devices, and the compass and north-finding drift. It also annoys that you can't change the time zone.

Screenshots

What people use it for

Beginners and families who want to point a phone at the sky and learn what that bright dot overhead is

What reviews praise

Pointing camera at the sky, beautiful visuals, shows planets stars constellations, visibility times, works even on cloudy nights

What reviews complain about

Errors in moon phase and sunrise, sunset times gone after an update, black 3D view on some devices, compass and north-finding drift, can't change time zone, glitchy on iPad mini

What users experience

1 excerpt from the breakdown. These are individual cases, not a verdict on all users.

I used to depend on this app for knowing moon phases and I missed the full blue moon rise because this app said it was the next day. I also noticed that it said the moon phase was waning the day before the full moon, which is not possible. That is unacceptable.