Features
AR Celestial Scout
Point your iPhone at the sky and see where the sun, moon, and Milky Way will be — overlaid on the real world, in real time.
Point your phone at the landscape and see exactly where the sun, moon, or Milky Way will travel across the sky — and how the star trails will wheel around the celestial pole — overlaid on the live camera. Scrub time with your thumb to watch the body sweep its arc, find the moment it lines up with your subject, and start a shoot plan right there.
What you get
- Live sky overlay. The sun (a warm gold line) and moon (a blue line), each with their current position, plus the Milky Way band, are drawn over the camera using your phone’s compass and tilt. The arcs trace the whole day’s path: the part above the skyline is a solid line, and it continues below the horizon as a dashed, dimmed line — so you can see exactly where a body rises from and sets toward, not just where it is now. A faint line marks the terrain horizon, and a ring marks the galactic core, brightening from grey to gold as it climbs — the cue for when it’s best placed.
- Show only what you need. Toggle Sun / Moon / Milky Way / Star Trails independently so the overlay stays uncluttered for the shot you’re planning.
- Star Trails — preview the night’s rotation. Switch on Star Trails to see the sky’s pivot point — the celestial pole (near the North Star up north; due south below the equator) — marked on the camera, with the concentric circles the stars wheel around it. Set your planned exposure with the scrubber and the trails grow to match: a longer exposure draws longer streaks. Frame the pole and judge how the star-trail arcs will fall across your composition before you ever open the shutter.
- Pick any date. Tap the date chip to choose the day and time you’re planning for — the arcs rebuild for that night, so you can scout a shoot weeks ahead, not just right now.
- Time scrubbing. Drag the dial — or just drag the sky left/right — to move time forward and back. The orbs glide along their arcs, and the sun’s arc shifts colour through the day’s light phases (golden hour, blue hour, twilight) as you scrub.
- Snap back to now. Scrubbed forward or picked a future day? A Now button returns the scout to the present moment in one tap.
- Compose — drag the body to where you want it. Tap Compose, then drag the sun, moon, or Milky Way marker to exactly the spot in your frame where you want it — over a peak, beside a tree, behind a chapel. The scout answers when (if ever) the real body will be there, live as you drag, and shows the next date and time on a chip. A soft glow shows the band of sky the body actually travels, so you can see at a glance where it can go. Tap the chip to see every upcoming window, then tap one to start a shoot plan at that moment. You can also save the result as a composition guide — a reusable note of what to shoot and the lens you framed it with — filed against a new or existing spot. Pick the moon’s phase (full, gibbous, …) before you solve. If the body can never reach that spot from where you’re standing, the scout says so kindly — with a Why? that explains how to fix it (move the marker, or scout a different vantage point) — instead of leaving you guessing.
- Line it up (visual calibration). Compasses drift, and every phone’s lens is a little different. Tap the scope button, then drag the sky until a body (say the sun) sits exactly on the real one, and tap Done. The scout remembers that nudge on this device and applies it everywhere, so the overlay matches what you actually see. Reset clears it.
- Plan in place. When a body sits where you want it, tap Plan this moment to save a shoot plan for that time.
- Capture what you scouted. Tap the camera button to snap the frame with the overlay drawn on it — the sun/moon/Milky Way lines and orbs baked into the photo. Then save it to a new spot where you’re standing, or add it to an existing spot. When you come back at night, you have the exact frame and the body alignment you had in mind — not just a pin on a map.
Terrain horizon needs a connection
The scout can hide the sun/moon behind ridgelines and mountains so the overlay matches the real skyline. That terrain shape is computed from elevation data on our servers, so this part needs an internet connection — the app tells you clearly when it isn’t available rather than showing a wrong horizon.
The horizon also reflects your eye height: tap the ruler button in the scout to set your camera or tripod height, and the skyline updates — raise the camera and you see a little further over nearby terrain. (It’s the same height the alignment planner uses.)
Without a connection, the scout still works — the arc, the orb, time-scrubbing, and planning all run on-device — you just won’t get the terrain silhouette until you’re back in coverage. Offline downloads for an area are on the way so you can take the full scout (terrain included) into the backcountry.
Accuracy & compass calibration
The overlay is built from your phone’s motion sensors and compass, matched to your camera’s real field of view, so it tracks smoothly even when you point straight up. The compass is the limiting factor — it’s a planning guide, not survey-grade, so expect alignment within a few degrees.
If your compass is unreliable where you’re standing, the scout tells you: an amber “Low compass accuracy” banner appears under the header (with iOS’s own ± estimate) instead of silently drawing the sky in the wrong place. Tap it for these same tips. When the compass recovers, the banner clears on its own — or tap the ✕ to dismiss it for the session if you’ve read the caveat and just want it out of the way (it returns next time you reopen the scout if the compass is still off).
For the best accuracy out of the box:
- Let your phone calibrate its compass. If iOS shows the figure-8 prompt (a red arc asking you to roll the phone in a figure-8), do it — a freshly-calibrated compass is what puts the sun, moon and Milky Way on the real sky without any manual tweaking.
- Stay clear of magnetic interference. Cars, speakers, magnets and magnetic phone mounts or cases pull the compass off true north. If the bodies suddenly look wrong, move away from metal/magnets and let the compass recalibrate — that’s almost always the cause.
- Micro-adjust only if needed. Any small residual offset is what visual calibration (above) is for — tap the scope button, drag the sky until a body sits on the real one, and the scout remembers that nudge on this device. With a calibrated compass you’ll rarely need it.
Availability
The AR Celestial Scout is available on any Viewpoint plan.
Terrain elevation is derived from open data (Tilezen Terrain Tiles / AWS Open Data; Mapzen, USGS and contributors).