Preferably Android apps available through F-Droid, but feel free to recommend iOS apps, too!
On iOS, I really like Sky Guide—I don’t think it’s open source, but it has the right features for the casual star gazer like myself, specifically the ability to point my phone at an object (i.e., “what’s that object up there”) and/or search by name (“where’s Jupiter right now”). After my transition to Android, I’ve found Sky Map, which has good feature parity with Sky Guide.
Any other open source apps like Sky Map that I haven’t found yet?
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No biggie, but reading the ToS in the app, it states that the app will send anonymous usage data to Google. I’ve disabled its network access (possible on GrapheneOS), and it works anyway. On this topic, the description in F-Droid reads:
Do I need an internet connection? No, but some functions (like entering your location manually) won’t work without one. You’ll have to use the GPS or enter a latitude and longitude instead.
Unfortunately it won’t run without Google Play Services.
Not true.
i don’t have google play services, it works fine
I’m running it without any Google services (on this user profile), not even sandboxed. Would it not work for you when attempting, or have you just seen or heard somewhere that it wouldn’t?
Attempting actually.
(Pixel 7 running GrapheneOS 2024120200 and Skymap 1.10.04 from github via Obtainium)
I installed 1.10.4 RC1 from the F-Droid repo (mine is just .4, not .04).
Maybe they did something in their build to remove Google and make it work without it? You could try that one.
FWIW, it says you can opt out of this in the settings. It’s sort of crappy you have to go digging to find this. There should be a disclaimer. Thanks for pointing it out.
It’s off by default, it seems, in version 1.10.4 RC1 from F-Droid. At least, I went to toggle it off, but it was already done.
Note, I tried rejecting the ToS st the first run, which just closed the app. So… I accepted them at the second run… Though, I don’t know if that in any way really could have affected the setting.
I really like Stellarium on Android
Seconded
Stellarium is an amazing planetarium program, almost unbelivable it’s open source.
But it’s android port is a bit disappointing, to be honest.
I’ve seen this app recommended in other articles; unfortunately, it is unavailable on F-Droid, so I’ve yet to try it for myself, but thanks for the recommendation.
You might want to look at obtainium as a package source as well
Where would I find the Android releases of Stellarium to do so? Their github only hosts Linux, Windows and MacOS releases.
Planisphere is alright, it’s basic, but does the job. No nasties in it and works offline.
I had found this app as well, but couldn’t get it to point & shoot so to speak. Seems I must manually tap and drag to pan around the map. Am I just doing it wrong?
Yes, that’s my understanding. So it’s more work to use than point and shoot, which would be a nice feature for someone like me who can recognize major constellations and planets, but not much else.
I can see how the “manual” workflow might be preferable to some, so I’d say this app is a good rec nonetheless, thanks!
One thing, though—I noticed East and West are flipped on the map, and I haven’t played with it enough to ascertain why that is. Is this by design?
EDIT: I guess this orientation makes sense if I orient myself facing south and looking up, in which case east would be to my left and everything inside the circle represents what is visible to me from that time and location, right?
i go to https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/ which is not really an app and it can be a bit wonky at times but it works better than every mobile app i’ve seen.
the desktop version of stellarium is the only worthwhile open source program i know about.
I read “tar gazing”. What a pun!
I usually tar gaze with ‘tar tvf’!
