Compass & AR Help

If you have an iOS or Android device with a compass, SkySafari can show you the sky in same the direction that you're holding your phone. As you move the phone around, the view on the sky chart follows your motion. You can identify stars and planets by holding your phone up next to them, and you can find any object in the sky by following an arrow that points in its direction.

On iOS devices, SkySafari can show you an Augmented Reality (AR) view that blends the star chart with the real sky, captured from your device's camera.

Please note: some devices, like the iPod Touch and Kindle Fire, have a gyroscope but no compass. The icon for Compass will switch to a Gyro instead.

Activating the Compass (or Gyro)

• Tilt your device upward.
• Tap the Compass icon in the toolbar (Android) or on the upper right of the screen (iOS).
• On a device with gyro but no compass, tap the Gyro button in the toolbar to activate the gyro.

Tap the Compass (or Gyro) button again, or touch any part of the sky chart, to turn the compass (or gyroscope) off.

Using the Compass

SkySafari uses the compass to center the sky chart on the direction you're holding your phone. You can also use it to find objects in the sky. To do this:

1. Turn on the compass.
2. Tap Search, and enter the name of the object you're looking for.
3. When the Object Info view appears, tap the Locate button at the bottom of view.
4. An arrow appears, leading you toward your selected object. Follow the arrow with your phone to center the object on the screen.

A note on accuracy: the solid-state compass built into most mobile devices is not very accurate, and easily affected by interference. It can easily be wrong by ten degrees or more. The compass may be useful for locating bright objects in a general part of the sky, but it's certainly not accurate enough to point a telescope.

Using Augmented Reality

SkySafari can show you an Augmented Reality (AR) view of the sky. AR blends the simulated sky chart with a real view of your surroundings, captured from your device's camera. Currently, AR is only available on iOS devices, and requires iOS 10 or later.

To use AR in SkySafari, first activate the compass. A small AR icon appears below the compass icon on the upper right of the screen. Tap the AR icon to turn on your device's camera. To turn off AR mode, tap the AR icon again.

You can increase or decrease the amount of sky chart blending with the camera's video image by swiping up or down.

Using the Gyro

Unlike the compass/accelerometer, the gyroscope measures your device's orientation relative to a known starting point. The gyro does not measure your device's true orientation relative to north/south/east/west or up/down in the sky. To find your way around the sky with the gyroscope:

1. Locate a known reference object in the sky, like the Moon.
2. Search for the same object in SkySafari, and center it on the screen.
3. With the object centered, hold your device toward the object in the sky.
4. Tap the gyro button to turn on the gyro.

Now, as you move your device around, the gyroscope follows its orientation relative to the object you used as a starting point.