Install the almanac as an app on your phone — it opens full-screen with no browser bars, and once installed it works completely offline. Perfect for dark-sky sites with no signal.
Checking offline status…
"Download everything for offline" saves every page, map and image now, so you're covered even if you didn't visit them all first. It also saves the Star ID catalog (about 6.5 MB) and the 3D spacecraft models (about 20 MB), which are otherwise only saved once you open them.
Location
Your observing location
Sets the latitude & longitude used for rise/set, twilight, the moon, planets and deep-sky positions across Forecast, Objects, Finder, Meridian, and Sun & Moon. The dark-sky maps are unaffected.
Default location
37.1986° N, 112.9869° W
Display
Night Vision Mode
Tints the whole app dim red to protect your dark-adapted eyes at the telescope. Stays on as you move between pages.
Sky Finder Zoom
Camera field of view
If the Moon or Milky Way markers drift as you pan the camera — sitting right when centered but sliding off toward the edges — nudge this until a marker tracks a known object across the whole frame. Lower = the markers move faster across the screen.
Narrow (15°)70°Wide (110°)
Tip: first use Align in the Sky Finder to fix the starting point, then fine-tune this zoom so a marker stays locked on a known object as you sweep across the whole frame.
Sky Finder Alignment
Quick Align (recommended)
If the star and planet markers sit in the wrong place, the fix takes one tap. Open the Sky Finder, tap Align in the tools row, and the app picks the brightest unmistakable thing in the sky right now — the Moon, a bright planet, or a bright star — and tells you exactly what to aim at. Center it in the crosshair and tap Align. That’s it. Phone compasses are often off by 10–30°; this corrects it in a second.
No need to know any stars by name — the app names the target for you and points you to it. Daytime works too: if nothing else is up it aligns to the Sun (aim using the screen only; don’t look at the Sun directly).
Manual nudge
If you’d rather fine-tune by hand, or your compass is only slightly off, nudge the whole sky left/right (compass) and up/down (altitude) until the markers sit on the real objects. These add to whatever Quick Align set.
Left / Right (compass)0°
Up / Down (altitude)0°
Reset clears both Quick Align and the manual nudge, returning the Sky Finder to the raw compass reading.