Observer Pro

This is the observing app I’ve been looking for. I am surrounded by woods, with only a few observing windows widely spaced around my property in various directions. I also have an observation site a couple blocks away on the edge of a lake. This app is perfect for comparing the different sites and deciding which is best, and how long I have on target for astrophotography. Also, the method for tracing the horizon at each site couldn’t be simpler. I only had to spend 15 minutes in freezing weather to measure the horizon at six sites around the yard. This latest release is very welcome, fixing a bug with the onscreen keyboard. The iPad experience is still a little suboptimal, but that’s a minor quibble considering how useful this app is. Edit- I increased the rating to 4 stars with this latest release (v.1.4). If a native iPad version is released, this would be a 5-star app. One last note to those thinking about whether the app is worth $14- considering what you probably spent on your astronomy or astrophotography setup, this cost is a drop in the bucket and it will save you much time and irritation over using other apps that don’t really come close in functionality. However, the developer hasn’t updated this app in 3 years, and it has a bug, so don’t expect curb service for your $14.

I’ve used this app for a little over a month now. It has become indispensable when planning for a night of astrophotography. I, for the most part, do not travel with my scope and keep it in one spot all the time. I have a “decent” view of the night sky. Being in an urban setting, I have to deal with buildings and trees. However, with this app, I am able to plan, minute by minute, what I want to image on any given night and even nights in the future. One thing I’d like to see added is a feature that would enable planning to be done across different devices, i.e. iPad to iPhone. Just a suggestion.

Outstanding app I love how I can trace my Tree lines. I use this a lot to plan observing. But I'd love to see frame size (field of view) to see which scope would be best for a selected target. My 80mm apo or My 8" RC. One has focal length of 480 the other around 1500. I wish I could see the target size in my preset views. I also wish the photos were in color. Though that may make the app huge. Still would be worth it to me as I'd delete a lot of other apps for this one if expanded. I also wish there was a faster way to page down through hundreds of dso's in some of the larger catalogs. Flicking a finger up is tiring and slow. Still works so well at helping me see (what's in view) I have to give 5 star rating. I've bought over a thousand apps. Rarely use any one of them. This is the one worth buying an apple device for. I would also like to see the moon in SkyView. I see the curve and the sky is not as dark, but would like to see moon coming and going... is it behind my tree line? This is also where it would be great to zoom in on the circle in the path of sky view and see. Photo of target with scope focal length size?