An astronomy app made by astronomers released anew

we are back,
and it’s free.

A complete tool. Scientifically rigorous.

Starmap returns as the most complete reference we have ever built for the field observer. No advertising. No in-app purchases. No tracking. A contribution from a working astronomer to anyone who looks up.

Download on the App Store

The app in use

From the dark-adapted field to the desk at home — the whole working set.

Live sky map showing Andromeda, Cassiopeia and the horizon at dusk

In the field · Live sky

Hold the phone up to the sky.

The map follows the phone — compass and attitude keep the chart aligned with what is overhead. An arrow guides you to whatever you are looking for.

Telrad ring centred on M31 with an eyepiece FOV polygon near Alpheratz

Star-hop · Telrad

A complete map. For serious stargazers.

2.5 million stars on the device. Red mode preserves your night vision. Centre the Telrad rings on the target and match the eyepiece field to the chart.

Day map of the Cygnus region showing the Northern Coalsack, dark nebula traces and detailed designations

On the desk · Day map

A chart in the best atlas tradition.

Printable, restrained, dense. Dark nebula traces, Bayer–Flamsteed labels inline, magnitude-graded dots — the printed-atlas vocabulary, native.

Sun detail page showing altitude, twilight times, and a table of ten active regions with McIntosh and magnetic classes

Daytime · NOAA SWPC

Operational solar physics.

Twilight to the minute. Active regions with McIntosh and Mt. Wilson classifications. Plage regions, F10.7, Kp — straight from NOAA.

Saturn and its moons Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Hyperion framed inside an eyepiece field of view

At the eyepiece · Optics

What you see on the phone is what you see in the eyepiece.

Define your telescope and eyepiece — here, Saturn and its moons inside a true field of view. Overlay the camera frame to pick a guide star before you ever shoot.

Detail page for Betelgeuse showing spectrum, luminosity class, temperature, mass, lifetime, fate, photometry

Reference · SIMBAD

Extensive scientific information, always up to date.

Spectrum, luminosity class, temperature, mass, radius, lifetime, fate. Metallicity, log gravity, variability, fourteen photometric bands. Presented cleanly, in the language of astronomy.

From the author

I am a professional astronomer. Eighteen years ago, when the App Store opened, I built Starmap. It found a generous audience — readers who held the sky in their hand for the first time. Then I stepped away, embracing other adventures.

Starmap is back. I built it alone, over several years. This time it is free. No advertising. No in-app purchases. No tracking. No premium tier. No upgrade prompts.

The most complete reference for the visual observer I have been able to make — in the line of Tirion’s Uranometria 2000.0 and Vehrenberg’s Handbook of the Constellations, the worn atlases that taught generations of us our way around the night sky.

— F. D.Author · Astronomer · Sole developer

Everything you would expect from a real atlas, and more.

No tier-locked catalogues. No upgrade nags. The whole monty, on first launch.

Stars

Deep Sky

Solar System

The Sun

At the eyepiece

Map & search

Sky alignment compass + attitude
Live lookup SIMBAD · MPC
Cross-identifier search all catalogues
Themes night · full red · day (black on white)
Sky quality match your conditions
Grids equatorial · local · ecliptic · galactic · supergalactic
Constellation boundaries ✓
Fully tunable what is displayed, labels, layers, sizes
Calendar integration iCal

Live data · institutional sources

Easy access to three of the world’s primary astronomy data services.

SIMBAD

CDS · Strasbourg

Cross-identifier resolution and bibliographic detail for any catalogued object. Look up any star by any of a hundred designations — Henry Draper, Hipparcos, SAO, 2MASS, ROSAT, eROSITA, Gliese, and more — and pull the full record.

NOAA SWPC

Space Weather Prediction Center

The world’s authoritative space-weather feed. Active regions with McIntosh classifications, plage regions, F10.7 cm flux, GOES X-ray data, and Kp index forecasts.

Minor Planet Center

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

The IAU clearing-house for small-body astronomy. Live orbits and ephemerides for every catalogued comet, asteroid, trans-Neptunian object, and known interstellar visitor in the Solar System.

In the line of the great atlases.

A day map, in the Uranometria tradition

The chart is the chart. Nothing more, nothing less.

Starmap ships a printable-style day map for planning and study, in the same restrained vocabulary as the printed atlases that taught generations of astronomers. Dotted Milky Way contours. Bayer–Flamsteed labels inline. Magnitude-graded dots without halos. No constellation art unless you ask for it.

The point is the same as it was in 1981: the chart should disappear into the act of observing. Your attention belongs to the sky.

My favourite atlases — the Handbook of the Constellations, Uranometria 2000.0. Works of art I have always admired, and warmly recommend you own a copy.

Day map of Perseus in restrained black-and-white style

Printable charts

Free seasonal charts. Always.

A tradition we kept from the first edition. Print, fold, take into the field. Distribute. Use them in your classroom, or on your pathfinder expeditions.

Northern Hemisphere Equator Southern Hemisphere

Dark-theme sample chart with cream stars on deep blue

Dark sky

Red-theme sample chart with red stars on near-black background

Red mode

Daylight-theme sample chart with black stars on cream background

Daylight

Dark-theme sample chart with cream stars on deep blue

Dark sky

Red-theme sample chart with red stars on near-black background

Red mode

Daylight-theme sample chart with black stars on cream background

Daylight

Dark-theme sample chart with cream stars on deep blue

Dark sky

Red-theme sample chart with red stars on near-black background

Red mode

Daylight-theme sample chart with black stars on cream background

Daylight

Charts for the current month, generated each click. Free for personal and educational use; please credit Starmap.

Write to the author.

You are writing to a real person, so be as kind as if you would meet them in person. Bug reports, suggestions, observations from the field — all welcome.