The Milky Way Planner That Finds Your Window
Core rise, peak and set for your exact spot — matched to darkness and the moon.
Explore the plannerAn astrophotography planner with one honest answer
Every night-sky shoot starts with the same question: is tonight worth it? Dark Skies answers it — then plans the rest of the night with you.
Most astrophotographers plan a shoot across five browser tabs: a weather site, a moon calendar, a Milky Way chart, a darkness calculator and a forum thread about camera settings. Dark Skies replaces the tabs with one app that reads the whole night for your exact location and gives you a single, glanceable verdict — the Night Score, from 0 to 100.
Pick the night
The score blends the five signals that actually decide a night: cloud cover, atmospheric transparency, humidity, moonlight and your true astronomical dark window. The dark-sky forecast scores the week ahead night by night, and Best Nights ranks a 14-night horizon with the strongest night called out at the top — so the good nights get booked in your calendar, not discovered in hindsight.
Plan the targets
Once the night is chosen, the planner walks you through it. The Milky Way planner shows when the Galactic Core rises, peaks and sets — and whether it's even core season at your latitude. Moon planning gives you phase, illumination and exact rise and set times, so moonlight never ambushes a deep-sky session. A meteor outlook covers shower peaks, radiant timing and expected rates, and visible planets are called out for the night.
Nail the exposure
In the field, the Star Exposure Calculator turns your camera, lens and sensor into a recommended shutter speed — Balanced or Sharper (NPF) — with saved profiles for your kit, from full-frame to Micro Four Thirds. Widgets keep tonight's score and dark window on your Home and Lock screens, and Best Night alerts nudge you when an exceptional night is coming to your spot.
Private by design
There's no account to create and no ads to dodge. Your saved locations stay on your device, and your location is used only to calculate sky and weather conditions for your spot. Optional diagnostics are off by default. Read exactly how it works on our privacy page.
Want the theory behind the tool? Start with the guide to finding the best nights for astrophotography, or head back to the Dark Skies homepage for the full tour.
Astrophotography planner FAQ
What does an astrophotography planner do?
It answers the questions that decide a night shoot before you leave the house: is tonight worth it, when is the sky truly dark, where will the Milky Way and moon be, and what settings keep stars sharp. Dark Skies folds all of that into one app, built around a single 0–100 Night Score.
Is Dark Skies good for beginners?
Yes — the app leads with plain-language guidance rather than raw data. One score tells you whether tonight is promising, each night comes with a full breakdown when you want the detail, and the free guides on this site cover the planning theory behind it.
Does it run on both iPhone and Android?
Yes. Dark Skies runs on iOS 18.1 and later and Android 12 and later, with widgets and Best Night alerts on both platforms. It's free to download, with an optional Pro subscription for advanced planning features.