Astro Conditions2.3.1 - App Store

Astro Conditions - Know when, where, and what to observe.

Plan better nights under the stars.

Astro Conditions combines stargazing weather, darkness, Moon conditions, modeled light pollution, nearby observing locations, equipment guidance, and recommended celestial targets in one private, ad-free app.

See whether tonight is worth going out, find a better place to observe, and discover what will be visible-from planets and double stars to clusters, nebulae, and galaxies.

. Observing Quality and Night Conditions scores from 0 to 100
. Offline modeled light pollution for more location-aware planning
. Best Targets for your location, night, and equipment
. Nearby areas ranked for better observing conditions
. No account, subscription, or advertising

NIGHT CONDITIONS & OBSERVING QUALITY

Night Conditions combines clouds, seeing, transparency, fog risk, wind, moonlight, and the useful nighttime window.

Observing Quality builds on those conditions and accounts for modeled light pollution when available, giving you a more realistic picture of your selected location.

. Early- and late-night trends
. Three-day forecast
. Hourly clouds, visibility, humidity, wind, and temperature
. Seeing estimates using temperature stability and upper-atmosphere wind
. Transparency estimates using cloud layers and visibility

BEST TARGETS

Explore recommended objects from a curated catalog for your selected location and night.

Add binoculars, visual telescopes, or Smart/EAA telescopes, then choose what you plan to use. You can also choose Naked Eye.

. See how well each target matches your equipment
. Find the best observing time, direction, and altitude
. Understand how weather, darkness, moonlight, and visibility affect the view
. Get Finding Tips, equipment guidance, and Observing Notes
. Browse offline reference images for many targets
. Choose from Easy, Standard, and Challenge observations

MY EQUIPMENT

. Save binoculars, visual telescopes, and Smart/EAA telescopes
. Select one or more instruments for each session

FIELD MODE

Use a dim red appearance at the telescope to help preserve night vision.

SUN, MOON & DARKNESS

. Sunrise and sunset
. Astronomical night timing
. Moonrise and moonset
. Moon phase, illumination, and altitude
. Moonlight-aware target recommendations

BEST NEARBY AREA

. Compare nearby areas using forecast conditions and modeled light pollution
. See ranked observing locations on a map
. Adjust search radius and location spacing
. Open a selected location in Apple Maps

LOCATION MANAGEMENT

. Use your current position or save favorite observing sites
. Search by city, coordinates, or map
. Rename and reorder saved locations
. See modeled light-pollution category and sky brightness for saved sites
. Use each location’s local date and time

OPTIONAL ISS TRACKING

Add your N2YO API key to see visible International Space Station passes.

. View rise, peak, and set times
. See peak elevation and direction
. Follow the ISS path across the sky
. Identify passes already in progress

WIDGETS & APPLE WATCH

. Tonight at a Glance widget for quick condition checks
. Tonight’s Targets widget with up to three recommendations
. Three-Night Outlook widget for planning ahead
. Apple Watch app and complications for quick condition checks
. Observing Quality across supported phone, widget, and Watch views
. Sync locations, preferences, and conditions with Apple Watch

PRIVATE & CUSTOMIZABLE

. Layouts adapt to larger iOS text sizes
. No account, subscription, or advertising
. Modeled sky brightness from David Lorenz’s Light Pollution Atlas
. Astronomical calculations and target recommendations performed on your device

Whether you observe with your eyes, binoculars, a telescope, Smart/EAA gear, or an astrophotography setup, Astro Conditions helps you decide when to go outside, where to observe, what to look for, and which equipment to use.

Version History Improvements
• More reliable background updates for Apple Watch conditions and Observing Quality

Bug Fixes
• Fixed an issue where Apple Watch complications could stop updating after several days and show “--” until the Watch or iPhone app was opened 2.3.1 Aug 26 New Features
• Observing Quality score with modeled light pollution
• Light-pollution details on saved locations
• Best Nearby Area ranking with Observing Quality
• Observing Quality on widgets, Apple Watch, and complications

Improvements
• Clearer distinction between Night Conditions, Observing Quality, and Best Targets scores
• Better syncing of conditions and modeled light-pollution data between iPhone and Apple Watch

Bug Fixes
• Fixed Watch complications and refreshes sometimes falling out of sync with Observing Quality
• Improved reliability of saved-location light-pollution data on Apple Watch 2.3.0 Aug 11 New Features

• Added a Tonight’s Targets Home Screen widget with up to three recommended objects for your selected location
• Added a Three-Night Outlook Home Screen widget to compare tonight, tomorrow, and the day after

Improvements

• Updated Tonight at a Glance with clearer conditions, trends, and observing-window details that adapt to available space and larger text
• Improved support for larger standard iOS text sizes throughout Astro Conditions
• Improved readability of direction and altitude in Best Targets
• Improved My Equipment with better defaults, type-specific examples, and clearer aperture guidance

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the Dashboard’s “Last updated” time so it refreshes correctly when returning to the app 2.2.0 Aug 8 NEW FEATURES

• Added My Equipment for binoculars, visual telescopes, and Smart/EAA telescopes
• Personalize Best Targets for the equipment selected for each session
• Added Naked Eye mode for unaided observing
• See the best equipment match and suitability for each target

IMPROVEMENTS

• Added curated Finding Tips, Best Equipment guidance, and Observing Notes for every supported deep-sky target
• Improved planetary Finding Tips
• Added clearer visual, Smart/EAA, and photographic expectations
• Improved binocular magnification matching and equipment explanations
• Improved Venus recommendations during twilight

BUG FIXES

• Fixed malformed saved equipment being interpreted as valid equipment
• Fixed failed equipment saves leaving rejected changes in the app
• Fixed incorrect or repetitive Target Details guidance
• Improved equipment data validation and recovery 2.1.0 Jul 24 NEW FEATURES

• Added M36, M38, and M77 to the curated deep-sky target catalog

IMPROVEMENTS

• Field Mode now preserves the selected tab, Dashboard state, and scroll position when switching appearance
• Improved Best Spot cancellation behavior

BUG FIXES

• Fixed saved locations unnecessarily requesting the current GPS position
• Fixed Best Spot not refreshing after changing search radius or grid spacing
• Additional stability improvements and bug fixes 2.0.2 Jul 18 New Features

- Added Field Mode, a persistent dim-red appearance designed to help preserve night vision while observing.
- Added seeing and transparency to Night Conditions using upper-atmosphere wind, temperature stability, cloud layers, and visibility.

Improvements

- Improved Best Nearby Area recommendations, candidate suitability, cancellation behavior, and map clarity.
- Night Conditions now gives more useful timing guidance when sustained heavy clouds affect only part of the night.
- The Dashboard now keeps your selected day and place on the page when switching Field Mode on or off.

Bug Fixes

- Prevented favorable conditions from masking hours or nights with heavy cloud cover.
- Fixed inconsistent Night Conditions scores, ratings, colors, and summaries for mixed-cloud nights.
- Improved cloud-aware wording so cloudy nights are not described as clear.
- Fixed Field Mode layout and tab-bar issues on iPhone and iPad. 2.0.1 Jul 12 New Features
- Discover the best Moon, planet, double-star, cluster, nebula, and galaxy targets for each night.
- View observing windows, sky directions, target scores, equipment suggestions, finding tips, and reference images.
- Rename and reorder saved observing locations.

Improvements
- ISS passes now include rise, peak, and set details, sky direction, elevation, and night-specific organization.
- Clearer Moon illumination information and refreshed dashboard styling.
- Improved reliability when weather, location, or ISS services respond slowly.

Bug Fixes
- Improved the accuracy of planet positions and target visibility windows.
- Fixed forecast dates for observing locations in other time zones.
- Fixed active and unavailable ISS passes being displayed incorrectly.
- Prevented outdated Best Spot searches from replacing newer results.
- Prevented widgets and Apple Watch from showing the previous night’s conditions after midnight.
- Fixed Moon recommendations when the Moon remains below the horizon.
- Improved cloud-icon visibility in Light Mode. 2.0.0 Jul 6 New Features

- Apple Watch now shows when viewing conditions were last updated, so you can quickly tell how fresh the forecast is.

Improvements

- Viewing conditions now refresh hourly, keeping iPhone, Apple Watch, widgets, and complications more current.
- Forecast times are handled more accurately for each location’s local timezone, improving overnight ratings and hourly forecasts.
- Location search is more responsive while typing.
- Best Spot and night quality calculations are faster and more consistent.

Bug Fixes

- Fixed cases where Apple Watch, widgets, or complications could show stale or mismatched conditions.
- Fixed duplicate refreshes when opening the app or returning to the dashboard.
- Fixed incorrect “updated” timestamps when cached data had a future timestamp.
- Improved reliability when sharing locations, units, and cached conditions between the app, widgets, and Apple Watch. 1.2.1 Jun 1 New Features
- Added Apple Watch support for quick access to night quality, current conditions, and astronomical night details
- Added Apple Watch complications for viewing conditions on your watch face
- Added Home Screen widgets for tonight’s stargazing conditions
- Added a 0-100 Night Quality score
- Added early-vs-late night trends to show when conditions change overnight

Improvements
- Improved moonlight accuracy with hourly moon illumination
- Improved consistency of Night Quality ratings
- Improved astronomical night timing across time zones
- Improved iPhone, widget, and Apple Watch syncing
- Improved cached conditions for more reliable glanceable updates

Bug Fixes
- Fixed stale forecasts after day rollover
- Fixed timezone issues in astronomy calculations
- Fixed Apple Watch refresh and location selection edge cases
- Fixed storage and cached-data reliability issues 1.2.0 May 28 Improvements:
- Added a Night Quality assessment to quickly evaluate how suitable conditions are for telescope viewing.
- Introduced BestSpot to help find locations with better stargazing conditions.
- Improved fog calculations for more accurate observing forecasts.
- Automatically sets metric or imperial units based on your locale at first launch.

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where forecast dates and labels could be incorrect after reopening the app. 1.1.0 Mar 2 Improvements:
- Added visibility information to hourly forecast
- Improved visibility color display in current conditions for better consistency
- Added helpful link to n2yo.com when ISS tracking API key is missing

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed offset bug in hourly forecast display 1.0.1 Feb 19 1.0 Feb 18