I bet you didn’t know you were going to be so interested in the weather when you bought your telescope. Clouds suddenly became much more interesting to me when I began observing.
Apps for astronomy show cloud cover, dew point, temperate, and how these things are forecasted to change over the course of the night. The most popular astronomy weather apps are North American Astrospheric and UK based Clear Outside. A weather app is essential for serious observers. The best one is the one that is most accurate in your area.
The two most popular astronomy weather apps are Astrospheric and Clear Outside, I have both installed on my phone, but I find myself using Astrospheric 99% of the time. The app is just more intuitive and quicker to read.
I can pull up the day’s forecast and instantly get the information I am looking for.
Both apps have features to help you understand what the forecast means. They have additional information buttons for further reading about things like Dew Point and what the temperature means.
Their display is more visual with less text on the screen, so once I understand what the symbols and colors mean, I can see today’s conditions quickly.
It is also easier for me, as an American, to read the information displayed in the 12 hour clock and Farenheit.
Clear Outside has some features that are pretty exciting to me. They display moon phase and illumination.
I keep both on my phone, but I would recommend Astrospheric for most observers.
Astrospheric
Astospheric displays information about cloud cover, seeing, moon phase and illumination, dew point, temperature, extended cloud forecast and the location of the International Space Station.
I can also use the location feature in Astrospheric with my SynScan, the way the location information is displayed is the same format required by my goto. The location given is much more precise with Astospheric.
I like it for its simplicity. I like that you can tap on something like Dew Point and it explains what it is.
You can see on the display that there is very little text and that is what I like.
This is really just my preference, some may prefer Clear Outside.
It appears that Astropsheric is an American app as well. The temperature displays in Fahrenheit and the time is displayed using the 12 hour clock. Clear Outside uses Celsius and uses the 24 hour clock.
I am more used to Farenheit and 12 hour time, so this makes the app easier to use for me.
Temperature is really important when planning to observe. You need to spend time outside with your telescope so that it can come to the same temperature as the air outside. This is not a step you can skip most nights. We have a handy guide to acclimation here.
Is Astrospheric free?
Astrospheric is a free app, with a paid premium option called Astroshperic Professional. The Pro version requires an email address, and a small monthly payment.. I have been using it for over a year and I have not purchased the pro version.
The standard version gives me all the information I need to observe in my area.
I really like the pinpointed location and the easy to read display. I use it every day that I observe.
Is Astrospheric accurate?
Astrospheric has proved to be mostly accurate in my area. The data in Astrospheric usually matches the information I find in Google Weather.
I have seen it be wrong, or make inaccurate predictions, mostly with cloud cover. There have been times that it will tell me it is clear, but when I look, there are clouds, sometimes even too much cover to observe.
I usually check Google Weather as well as Astrospheric. When Astrospheric was inaccurate, Google was also inaccurate. I assume they use a similar weather database.
I checked by opening my front door, and we live in a heavily wooded area, so maybe the conditions were changing rapidly and I would have been able to observe. Who knows?
Clear Outside
Clear Outside says that they are by astronomers, for astronomers. The app was developed by First Light Optics, a UK based telescope supplier.
At first glance you will notice that Clear Outside uses more text on their display. It takes a bit longer to become familiar with this app.
To get your location forecast you can enter your zip code, city, state, and country under locations. This allows you to keep an eye on several areas if you like to travel to observe.
Even with that information it does not get as specific as Astropshperic.
My biggest complaint is that the home page is completely useless unless you live next door to the First Light Optic headquarters in Exetor, Devon. When you open the app you have to click into your locations to get information that relates to you. It just seems like poor design in my opinion.
Is Clear Outside free?
Clear Outside is a free weather app developed by astronomers at First Light Optics. There is no premium paid option, the app is truly free for anyone to use.
If you live in the UK, this app might be easier for you to use. It was developed by UK based astronomers.
Is Clear Outside accurate?
Clear outside does not forecast your conditions as accurately as Astrosperic because they do not pinpoint your location as closely.
The weather data found in Clear Outside is accurate to the location they have stored for you, but for me that is a few miles away from the precise location I get with Astrospheric.
Why I keep Clear Outside on my phone
As a North American observer, I just prefer Astrospheric, I appreciate the inutitive display, the simplicity and the accuracy of the location, but I do keep Clear Outside installed.
After reading up a bit on their website, I saw a feature they were developing that made me pretty excited.
They are developing clear sky alerts, which is so exciting. They are working on a feature where you can set your location and get alerts when the sky conditions are good for observing.
I’m pumped for the release of this feature. They hope that in the future users will be able to monitor several skies for clear sky alerts.
