SkyView® Lite
reviews and complaints

I’ve always had a version of this application on three phones over the years. They are simple and have never a problem. Just the right amount of information without a cluttered sky.

!EXCEPT! in the case of the Moon. Instead of panning through the sky and coming upon the moon, and getting to actually view it or any relevant data, what you are subjected to is some infomercial and glamour picture of some lady cluttering the view and hawking her latest self-indulgent audio ramble that you can’t get rid of, since there’s no way to dismiss her so that you could view the moon by it’s ____ing self!

Other than that glaring inconsistency, this is overall a well made application, which I would recommend for everyone to maintain a version on all of their iOS devices for the sake of curiosity if nothing else. Point of the sky and answer once and for all with that light is that you see...

So some people are confused about how there are constellations on objects and/or pointing on the ground. The earth is round, and you are not the only person that can see stars, the stars are all around you but you can’t see them because you are in a different place. You also might see a star/planet above you’re head, then right next to you, that is because earth is rotating and planets are also moving. The app is not fake, the constellations are in the right spot, some starts might be too dim, or light are too bright. You also can’t have any interference with magnets or you’re compass might not work. If you want to check if it’s real or working, then look in the sky (without the app) and find a constellation within the app. I’ve had zero problems with this app, and everything seems to be right, you might need to update it to find more stars. I 100% recommend SkyView Lite! (Also the Big Dipper is in a bear constellation)

Hello. I’d like to share with you a story that just proves this app is the best solar system guide ever.
It was a really late night during the summer of 2018. My sister, my mom, my dad and I were catching fire flies. I thought I saw the North Star, but SkyView Lite showed it was Venus in front of my house! Then next to it, I saw Jupiter, the moon, and Mars! And the app is completely free!
This app never shows adds. With most solar system apps, it shows you what you are pointing the camera at (like if you pointed your camera at your patio, you would see your patio), or apps might show you a fake sky (like if it was in the middle of the day, it would show the sunset), but this app has a setting that you can see the pitch black starry sky in space! This app does not need WiFi, and you can use it all day, every day! Any time, any place, as long as you have your device.
I hope this was a helpful review.

I love being able to open this app whenever I see a star or constellation that I want to know more about or become familiar with. I’ve used this app on and off for a few years now but in the last few months with so much more dark time in the northern hemisphere, I have used it almost daily. I like to quiz myself and the app helps me grade my responses. I also use it to teach my two year old about the wonders in the night sky. We love it! Her favorite star: Vega. My favorite star(s): The winter triangle; Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Procyon. I love the option to display or hide constellation lines or artwork, and love that I can either show or hide the actual surroundings that my camera can see.
This app is great, I highly recommend it. There’s almost nothing I would change about it except maybe if there was a way to add a link in the facts area of a selected object to either the Wikipedia page or some other information source for further knowledge exploration.

I personally think this is a great app! It works, it’s mostly free ( some things like music isn’t).1. It’s hard to control the screen I have turn around or to the side if I want to try and find planets. But I can’t seem to find Earth. I would like to be able to see meteor showers, comets, and other things but sadly I can’t. I thought it would allow you to go outside and actually see the stars. on the screen I can but I can see them outside but I feel like because when I’m inside it’s not real because I’m INSIDE not OUTSIDE. 2. U should add actual music with singing, I think it would be more fun to listen to like build me up buttercup (the foundations). Or my girl (the temptations) walking on sunshine, ain’t no mountain high enough, Dolly Parton songs, etc. and it should be FREE during these hard times most people can’t afford paying additional fees or just once. They have to pay bills, or take care of their family. But overall it’s a great app so I will still give it 5 stars sorry for the long review lol

I love this app. I really have found it useful in many different time during the beginning of my curiosity into astronomy began. For example, this app has allowed me to locate Saturn and view the planet with the rings right through my backyard telescope On multiple occasions. This app allows for an immersive and breathtaking experience, on an encounter with the stars. However, I do believe the app is lacking a fundamental component that, in 2017, it should already have. I believe this app should have virtual reality integrated into its game face. In order to allow users to obtain a more integrated, breathtaking, and interactive view with the stars. It sometimes seems as well, that be in large constellations often block the view of any stars, I suggest setting that can rid of the constellation tracing. Finally, do you speak on any specifics. I would suggest an option to change the music tomorrow relaxing and euphoric socks. Other than that the app is wonderful and has been used by myself another friends for months.

I have used this app for a couple years now, and I cannot say that there is an app I have used for the same amount of time that has brought me more joy, excitement, and satisfaction than this one. It allows my never ending curiosity to be aided in a way that leads to discovery. Which I think is absolutely awesome. I would call myself an amateur astrophotographer, and this app helps me out a bunch. It is also really helpful to be reading a section of the textbook for my current astronomy class, and be able to whip this app out and find what star or galaxy we are talking about.

I do wish it would give you a better look into the future, being able to project where certain stars, galaxies, or nebulae will be in a larger scope of time. I am practicing taking shots of the heart of the milkyway, but I still have about a month or two until it will be near that time where I live. I'd like to be able to plan a bit more for my shots, so I end up on safari searching for the right info to help me out. I feel that would be a modest addition to the app.

As cool as this app is, the compass seemed to be pointing in the opposite direction. I was at the beach when I was trying this out and it kept telling me I was facing west when the beach that I was at is facing east. They need to fix this.

Then I wrote this observation above, this was quite sometime ago (2+years) and the app stopped working completely for me while I had my iPhone 6s Plus. It was always showing the same constellation at the same location, so basically it was frozen and despite me restarting my phone or even redownloading the app again and then shutting off my phone, it still was frozen.

Now that I just got a much needed new iPhone and was going through the apps I don’t need and came across this one I haven’t touched in ages and downloaded it and it works fine. So I’m assuming that this app is no longer compatible with older iPhones which is a shame app developers do this since it forces people to get a new phone if enough of their apps don’t work on their phone. Maybe not particularly this app since it’s not a necessity, but there are others out there that are and do this.

Get comfy, we’ll be here a while. Here I go...

I started using SkyView about a week ago, and I love it! I have always been amazed by constellations and space in general, and this app made me even MORE excited about stars. (I know what you’re thinking, “What’s so cool about stars?” But bear with me. ) I discovered SkyView one day as I stood outside of my house, stargazing with my mom, and we watched Orion-my FAVORITE constellation.
My mom and I wanted to be able to find other constellations besides the ones we already knew. So, I looked for stargazing apps and found a bunch that seemed too good to be true. that is, until I found SkyView. Its description is super accurate and helpful. It’s great if you want to teach someone or yourself about the night sky.
This app helps relive my curiosity about almost ANYTHING that’s out there in the great abyss we call space. Won’t it be awesome if one day you can just open an app and see a FREAKING ALIEN PLANET?! Anyway, I just wanted to say that SkyView doesn’t get enough praise at all. It’s just such a fun, exiting and educating app. Thank you SkyView!

-Lizzie

I don't see why, space has to be viewed from the center point of planet Earth, why can't we get a different vintage point. Take Mars for example, looking back at planet earth. - this is something that bothers me, this same prospective of mine can and should be added in the real estate industry revealing views from a mountain(s) looking back towards the coordinates of interest.

Google Earth, and other earth Maps Should be added for us to view earth from Mars or the moon. With a zoom in effects to give the user a 3D experience of their searched option of any plants, moons, stars, etc.

A more in depth user experience to really dive into and explore the unknown places they wish to study on.

With all the information of the world combined in a organized manner, as if a human was to first click on planet earth for the first time. Let's say for example, that he/she was born on Mars or the moon. So he/she would see who and what lives on planet earth, by all the information provided over a span of time in the world wide web. The same should/will be true for any plant selected through any Space exploration Application.

This will prove to be readily available and useful as we as a human race, race to Mars to colonize and grow together in knowledge and in power.

OMG! This is soooo freakin cool! It's amazing! I love it! ♥️I feel like I'm on the show Stargate and I'm Doctor Who going around in the T.A.R.D.I.S! Haha! I mean this app really surprised me, at first it seemed to not have my location when I tried putting it in manually, so I gave up and let it find me itself. Then BOOM! Stars! And when I moved around the house I found planets! Then it showed constellations! It even shows you where each individual star, planet and (objects) like the International Space Station is going to go. I found my sign and my other family member's sign too! Which leads me onto talking about 'Staring' hehe basically favoriting lol whatever you like, star, planet ect. It also shows you where that star, planet ect is! It will create an arrow to help you find it again! It gives you facts about that star or planet and objects. Just so cool. The world-universe is huge! I mean it makes you think...were small, tiny little things in this vast place (X Files) oh! Lol And the background sound is very nice. Totally worth getting. I can't wait to use this in my room at night in bed to watch the stars! Also it gives you facts about whatever planet, star, objects and constellation! I really really really really really recommend this! That's it coming from
-Amanda

First off, I've been disappointed with nearly every app I've ever tried. This one, however, is a notable exception. From the overwhelmingly positive, detailed reviews i read to the first time I used the app and saw the names of all the celestial bodies I've been viewing my whole life, this app does exactly what I imagined apps were supposed to do, namely, one simply points it at the sky and clicks on the object for which the person needs more information, and the app does the rest. I absolutely love looking at the night sky. I've never owned a telescope, but I've always been slightly embarrassed by my consistent inability to accurately identify anything beyond the Big Dipper, the moon, Polaris and a few other celestial bodies. This app provides information that i would gladly pay typical app prices to gain access to, yet it's completely free and so far I haven't clicked on anything requiring an in app purchase to get the requested info. The app designers deserve serious props for providing a free app that perfectly serves the purposes for which I downloaded it. Anyone with any interest in stargazing should have this app, even if (or especially if) the person owns or has access to a telescope. Finally, someone actually provided an app for which I have absolutely nothing (so far) negative to say.

Skyview by Terminal Eleven LLC is an amazing stargazing app that uses augmented reality to see stars, planets, and satellites. This app does not require wifi or a network to run except when it needs to update firmware or object trajectories. When the app is initiated a piece of soothing extraterrestrial music plays in the background as the camera is aimed in the sky. Skyview is much more than just stargazing augmented reality app because it also allows the exploration of all 88 constellations and constellations of the zodiac. Once a constellation is selected the user can select the info button which cues an enormous amount of information. Information that can be found includes abbreviation, translation, family, origin and brightest star. As the user scrolls to the bottom of the screen the constellation background is shared which includes characteristics, space explorations, and astrology. The controls of the app allow the user to adjust the visible star magnitude, increase planet size, toggle on/off the AR camera and gyroscope calibrations. Stars are not the only objects in the Skyview app it also includes satellites, the Hubble telescope, international space station, moons, planets, and sun. This application can be built into a 4th-grade science unit on the planets. Since the app does not require night time to operate students could use this app to immerse themselves in astronomy. The ease of use and user-friendly controls make an exceptional choice for instructional designers and classroom facilitators.

I love this app! I have always been looking up at the stars as long as I can remember and have gone through many telescopes and used books to help me locate stuff in the night sky and now that I have kids I want them to enjoy as much as I do and I want to share how amazing and majestic it can be studying the night sky that our ancient ancestors did the same. With this app it has got my kids attention and they love using it. They are 3 and 8 and this app has made it easy for them to enjoy looking at stars and made it way easier for them to locate things and keep them I interested. They are able to go look on there own and discover the night sky. It’s helped to maintain an imagination and explore the universe. While sometimes I hate that they are so wrapped up in technology until I found this app. Now they are learning while having fun. Apps like these are able to bring back the adventurer and imagination that every child should have and wanting to discover and learn so thank you. I just wish that there was more constellations to find and other objects and planets to find without having to fork out $ constantly. If there has to be more ads for this to happen then so be it. The makers of this app should feel like they have more obligation to our younger generation esp to make it more available for them to learn and maintain there interest in the universe since humans know so little. The mystery is enticing to their little minds and I wish that you guys were more worried about maintaining that and helping them learn rather than to over charge and get rich...

Unlike other people who give reviews under four stars, I’m well aware that pointing your phone down gives you an idea of what’s below you. But like other users, I’ve been having issues with calibration. I see what I know for a fact is Polaris and I point my phone at it? Nope, must be looking northwest according to the app! See the Gemini twins on the horizon and look at it through the app? Nah, Gemini’s actually to your left!
I know that the settings allow you to calibrate manually, but the automatic calibration is all screwed up. I don’t want to deal with that.
This app was fun to use when I first downloaded it and just wanted to know what I was looking at, but when I got a bit more serious about astronomy, using this app became more of a chore. It’s missing stars from some constellations, including Mira which is a somewhat well known star in Cetus, and this is very annoying. I have the app set up to show as many stars as possible, and it’s still missing some vital ones that are in constellation outlines.
The pop up telling you to upgrade whenever you open the app is also very annoying.
All in all, I’d recommend this app for people who just want to know where in the sky their favorite Zodiac constellation is. For anyone else, Stellarium Web is much better than this - it has all of the same features (constellation art and lines, planets, etc) plus all 88 Western constellations, not the 15 or so you can on this app. It will allow you to track more than two satellites and zoom in on planets, sun, and moon, all for free. Go there if you want a good experience.

I was skeptical of how good of an app something like this could be. I’ve always been highly interested in the stars, constellations and space in general so was very pleased and love using this app. I was more so pleased to see the fun and excitement my 5 yr old son has when we go out on the back porch and use this app together. He is amazed by all of it. As I said I’m into space so that edged him on some but he really is into it and explains and ask questions about things most 20 yr olds haven’t thought about he may be at NASA one day. His grandfather was retired army and air force but also worked many years in cape Canaveral Florida and saw many launches as well as was part of a tech team charting and other things for NASA and military test launched at that time. He instilled a lot of excitement about space in the both of us before passing so it’s kinda like spending time with him as well. One of the first things my son said was this reminds me of looking through paw paws telescope. So amazing app and hope this review helps the SkyView team. I myself still have dreams or a drive to get involved somehow with a organization or NASA really in any way possible and happen to be now looking a new career path. Long story short some major surgery took me out of my electrician field of 15 years and had around 2 years now 3 post to recover which I’m now doing great and eager to go again and am kind of inspired by the app. If anyone at skyview has an idea or info on where to look or can give an direction or anything about how to possible please contact me and share I’d be extremely interested. Currently live in the middle of N.C pretty much again I hope the review heals you guys at skyview as well as encourages others to download it as it is very much so worth it maybe do me a favor as well which I kinda explained above. Everyone reading have a good day or night and have a great time
“Searching the stars”

Skyview

Anyone who suffers from motion sickness will suffer with this app! I don't, but still found myself getting slightly nauseous when using it.

Most similar apps give you an option of turning off the "compass" "auto-changing" view mode... and make the sky STOP moving around. This app purportedly has such an option, but it doesn't seem to work! There is NO manual mode that I can find.

Still wonder why the augmented reality mode is touted so much----if it's dark outside, you cannot even see the sky with it on! It may work for twilight, but then few stars are out.

The constellation drawings are large and a bit over the top.

There is no built in help system, and at least one icon has no explanation--the round dot. (After some frustrating fiddling, I discovered that it seems to give more info on an object if there happens to be one at the center.). But it looks just like the shutter button in camera apps, so that's confusing, especially as this has a camera reality mode.

Other icons are odd choices, too. The icon for turning on and off the augmented reality camera mode is a *videocamera! In addition, there's a camera icon always on the screen whose purpose remains a mystery!

Compounding the issues, the app requires that Location Services always be ON. It should learn your location and remember it each time.

There's also a usability glitch. You can get trapped in the location setting portion of the program! If you've turned off location services, it has trouble. It shows where you are, with the right lat. and long., but requires you to manually pick a location or turn LS back on. It should just use those last coordinates and provide a cancel, exit option there.

One also wonders about the accuracy of the information--the developers should be a tad more careful with how they describe what's up there! They say you can

"Simply point your device at the sky to find all 88 constellations, including all the constellations of the zodiac."

Well, that's not true! No one can find ALL the constellations in their sky at a given time! Only SOME of the constellations will be visible at any time of the night or year; plus, unless you live on or near the equator, many will never be visible! The Earth itself will block your view!

They also write:

"Find famous constellations such as the Big Dipper, Orion, and the Southern Cross."

Ahem! The Big Dipper is NOT a constellation!

Without a manual mode, the app's a recipe for sea-sickness, or, as we now call it, "sky-sickness"! Sorry, but we had to delete it.

I have used this app before from my same apple account. I uninstall abd install when ever i need it. I am disapointed to see that last night when installed it wasnt workkng and it still isnt working. It is stuck on the view of north and horizon and i cant scroll or when i move the celphone it wont move either. Please msg me back with a solution. I really like this app. Also i bought the expansion during the december or january and i dont have my expansion now... please help.

This is the worst app I have ever used I was trying to figure it out and I pressed the try it out button and it showed stars in my room which means it was fake my aunt suggested me this app and it kept popping up so I downloaded it and it was so fake I spent 10 minutes of my time downloading and I really regret it my rating is 0 out of 1-5 also if it is real how long can you look at stars before you get bored and go to another app I think I could have lived without this device

This app is bad because it is lying it says that all the planets are in different directions but they should be on the same plane. Like it was cheaper if you were down down there but my friend Venus and mars are up high. I think this app should be banned because how bad it is I mean it does show you constellations and all but over all this app is horrible and I want to rate it a 0 out of five but the lowest you can go on a rating is 1 out of 5 and I’m only 10 years old by the way.

I used this occasionally a few years ago. I liked tracing the international space station. As people say the calibration is off and doesn't stay steady. Tech support say I am too close to electric lines. It was just as bad in the boondocks of the Philippines while on vacation. The worst was tonight. The moon was 180 degrees out and the sun was at high noon. 9 at night?! Sorry. I have to delete this. I know it was not the calendar or clock misadjusted coz that can cause these problems.

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So I had such a great night with a friend looking at all the constellations. We found many in the sky and we were so excited. The one constellation I couldn’t see was me. Until I started to point the camera down. Then there it was, my constellation on the ground. My friend laughed so hard that she couldn’t get the words out. Now what a powerful message I received from the Lord. I’m grounded. Thank you Lord, I’ll continue to take the L’s. I wish you could see actual picture of my constellation along side my UGG boots.

I downloaded this app and was very excited when I opened it. Obviously wherever I pointed it , it was dead one. Found the star/ planet and some little teeny writing in a skinny unreadable font popped up in the lower left hand corner. No matter what I did I couldn't read it. It would get more stars if they would fix that. I had to download another app. Super bummed. Because the other Apps screen was off - so when I pointed at something, I had to move it around to find it on my screen. But at least once I found it- I could read what I was looking at.

Dunno ‍♂️ if you got my recent comment on whereabouts the SpaceX’s Starlink? What about NASA’s Starliner to ISS (International Space Station) or Voyager 1 & 2? I’ve always wanted to track Starlink & Voyager 1 & 2. Space Force? In the future for Starship & the James Webb Space Telescope ? Don’t forget about the Blue Origin rocket ? JAXA? Chinese Rocket & Rocket Lab’s Protons the All these are not in either of your SkyView apps. Thumbs down for now until you make these changessssssssssss (count the “s” on each of the missing Space products).

I really enjoyed this app until some of their features obscured my view. I get pisces’ stars connect and turn into a man pouring water from a large jug/water, but that man was so bright and obtrusive in the night sky it prevented me from seeing what I was actually looking for! I wish there was an option to turn that setting off... I love astronomy and studying the stars & planets, but I do not care for astrology. Seeing the stars turn into the shape of a man (and whatever else the other stars turn into) simply obscure my view from seeing the ACTUAL stars.

Today there was an eclipse so I got this app and I pointed it at the eclipse, and if you move the phone away from the eclipse, the eclipse on this phone moves away from the actual sun, but the eclipse on the app is still on the screen but a different location than the sun. So you are seeing two eclipses side to side. If that makes sense. This app is FAKE. Also if you point your phone to the ground there are still stars. And through my ceiling. It just memorizes where things are supposed to be from the compass. 0 stars if it didn't force me to give it one.

I don’t know what app all of these positive reviewers have been using, or if this app was different before an update or something but I personally did not find this helpful. I read about it in Apple news and thought it would be nice since I live in an area where the stars are very visible. I opened the app and they are already showing me different stars. The first time it showed a bear, then Pisces and then Virgo. I don’t know if the paid version is better, however I will not waste my money or time to find out. Very cool concept, I just wish it actually did what it said prior to me potentially spending any money for it to do something extra.

Ok at first I was like “OMG THIS IS THE BEST APP EVER!” but then I pointed my camera at the grass just to see what happens, then it said 2 satellites, 3 constellations, Saturn, and like 2 other planets were down there. I was really disappointed b/c my friend recommended this app to me and I was really looking forward to use it! My mom once told me that Venus was at the side of our house so I pointed the camera there and it said that was Venus...! So I was really confused. Somethings were accurate and others weren’t? I’m just saying this is a really cool app, but it’s... I don’t really know... somewhat inaccurate I guess. Please respond to this!

I have been using this App for the last few years. We follow the International Space Station. The last 6-7 weeks the “finder” is way off in locating the Station at my location. The App shows the Station on its way down when we hold up the phone to find it in the sky. But we see it coming up in the sky at the “visible” coordinate. The location coordinates are correct for “visible”, “peak”, and “disappears”. But the locator is way off. I do locate the planets fine, however . If I dont have a compass, I cant find the Space Station. How can I fix it? I paid for the update months ago. Love the App if it would get back to working right

Hi Guys Love The App, Though ive noticed that it seems to be a little bit off, I was outside watching the ISS n I noticed I couldn’t see it, I waited n watched but it wasn’t showing up where n when it said that it was suppose to be. Then about 30-35 Seconds later, it Crossed the Sky when it was supposed to, but the ISS was crossing the night sky n The animated version of it was below the Horizon, but I’m out here every night having a smoke when it’s clear n it’s supposed to be crossing the Sky, so if you could please recalibrate the App So it is in the Actual spot that it’s suppose to be in, that would be Great. Thanks a Bunch n the App is Pretty Cool...

Artimus ad will not go away. I’m documenting movement of the moon and every time I point my iPhone toward it the ad shows up. Why?! Why in the middle of the screen?! I should be able to dismiss it. Even clicking on ad would not cause it to go away.

I am disappointed that the functionality of this app was compromised by advertising from Artemis/Audible/Andy Weir. It makes SkyView significantly less useful as an educational tool for those interested in astronomy. This is absolutely the wrong use of augmented reality. If anyone ends up thinking that there really is a colony of smugglers fighting against some rich people on the moon, it will be on your heads. For shame.