Every feature,
explained.

Every score here is a forecast — here's how much to trust one.

Everywhere a percentage or score appears

Arclight, Bio Blue, Emberlight, Milky Way, comet, meteor and aurora numbers are probabilities computed from weather models, space-weather feeds and astronomy math. Models are imperfect, feeds can be stale or wrong, and the sky is under no obligation to agree. Treat a high score as a reason to go look, not a promise, and a low score as a reason to check the sky yourself before writing the night off — some of the best conditions arrive unforecast. Verify with your own eyes and local knowledge, then go anyway. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

Your six home spots — the app scores tonight for these first.

Settings → Favorite Locations (and onboarding)

Add up to six places. The first one leads your briefing and sets the app's accent color. Reorder or remove any time.

Tell the app what you shoot so it emphasizes the right cards.

Settings → Photo Styles (and onboarding)

Pick Milky Way, Moon, Aurora, Coastal, Sunrise & Sunset, or Landscapes. Your picks decide which cards appear; the first style drives the accent color.

A single 0–100 read on whether tonight is worth the drive.

Today tab → hero

Blends sky, weather, moon, and timing for your styles — higher means fewer compromises. Tap it for the full written report.

Your nightly report — verdict, score, and the reasons behind it.

Today tab

Refreshes when you open the app and on a steady rhythm while it's open. Tap the hero for the full written briefing.

Find good spots around wherever you are right now, while traveling.

Today tab → Scout Nearby

Tap it to search dark-sky, coast, and viewpoint spots near your current GPS — without changing your saved places. Each result has drive time and a detail card.

Every past briefing, kept honest.

Today tab → clock icon in the header

Tap the history icon to browse past reports. (Pro.)

What's worth shooting tonight, when exactly, and where to stand.

Sky tab → Night Sky Planner

Pick a night and browse 25+ targets; each gets a GO / MARGINAL / NO verdict with the reason. Tap a target for its altitude curve and framing advice. (Pro.)

When will the moon line up behind my landmark?

Sky tab → Night Sky Planner → Shot Alignment Finder

Point it at a compass bearing; it scans night by night and lists every alignment with rise/set and moon illumination.

Your clean, moon-free dark window for the galactic core.

Sky tab → Milky Way Core card

Shows the dark window, the core's peak altitude and bearing, and honest moon interference. Off-season it flips to winter targets (Orion, Andromeda).

The real sky over your location, tap to identify anything.

Sky tab → SKY TONIGHT on the core card

Drag the amber slider to scrub dusk→dawn. Switch DOME (whole sky) or HORIZON (drag to look around). Tap a star/planet to identify it.

Peak nights, shooting windows, and moon interference for your sky.

Sky tab → Meteor Showers

See the next shower's Photographic Opportunity Score, a 12-month timeline, and per-night windows scored for your location. (Pro.)

The number you see is what you'll actually count — not the catalog headline.

Anywhere a shower rate appears (briefing, Live View, Meteor Showers)

Published ZHR figures assume a perfect dark sky with the radiant straight overhead — conditions you will essentially never have. We derate that headline by how high the radiant actually climbs from your latitude and how much the moon washes the sky that night, so a ZHR of 100 may honestly read as 20/hr. Lower, and true.

Active and peak showers surface in the daily briefing without you looking.

Today tab → briefing → Meteor Watch section

On any night a shower is active, the briefing names it and its parent comet, gives tonight's honest hourly rate, the best window, how high the radiant gets, and which way to face. Peak nights get their own headline. Astro-style users see every active shower; a major peak shows for everyone.

Every solar and lunar eclipse through 2040 — and whether YOUR sky sees it.

Sky tab → Next Eclipse (and Live View → the eclipse target)

The card names the next eclipse your spots or GPS location can actually see. Tap for the full schedule to 2040 and the interactive globe: solar eclipses draw the gold totality band and the blue partial zone, so you can see exactly where to travel. Heads-up notifications arrive a month, a week, and a day before every major eclipse (toggle in Settings). In Live View, the eclipse target shows where in YOUR sky the eclipsed Sun or Moon will stand at maximum — plan the foreground before the day. Times are computed on-device with an arc-second ephemeris and checked against a verified catalog at every launch. (Pro.)

Every comet bright enough to matter, brightest first.

Sky tab → Comet Watch (also Today page, Live View & Planner targets)

The card spotlights the brightest comet up now with tonight's window, best hour, and where to look; tap for the full list — brightening, near peak, and fading — with a visual magnitude scale. The top comets become aimable targets in Live View and the Planner. Positions come from the JPL ephemeris for your exact location; brightness from the worldwide observer network, labeled with its as-of date whenever the feed is stale. (Pro.)

Know two days early when planets pair up close enough to share a frame.

Nightly briefing (Today tab) + Settings → Planetary conjunctions

When naked-eye planets — or the Moon and a planet — close within a few degrees AND the pair is genuinely shootable from your sky, the nightly briefing headlines it: separation, the shooting window, direction, and height, with sub-degree planet pairings flagged as the years-apart events they are. Alerts arrive two days ahead (time to scout a foreground) plus an evening-of reminder timed to your sky — never a mid-day buzz. All positions are computed on your phone, corrected for the Moon's parallax at your exact location. (Pro.)

Know exactly when the Space Station streaks over your sky — and point at it live.

Sky tab → ISS Tracker (and Live View → Choose Target)

The card headlines your next VISIBLE pass — the station sunlit against a dark sky, not just overhead — with when it appears, how high it climbs, which way it travels, and how bright. Inside: the live orbit position, every pass for the next 5 days (honest about which ones you can't see), and SUN & MOON TRANSITS — the sub-second silhouette crossings, each with a disc diagram showing the chord the station will cut. Transit corridors are only a few miles wide, so when one misses your spot, tap the row for the CHASE MAP: the whole visibility band shaded on the map (anywhere inside sees the crossing), crossing times along the centerline, suggested parking ranked by distance off the line, and one-tap driving directions. Solar transits require a certified solar filter. During a pass, open Live View and choose ISS as your target to walk the camera onto it in real time. Turn on ISS heads-up in Settings for a ping 15 minutes before bright passes and the day before + 90 minutes before nearby transits. Orbits are computed on your phone from official orbital elements — re-check transit times the morning of, since station boosts shift corridors by miles. (Pro.)

Find the darkest sky near you.

Sky tab → Darklight

A light-pollution map (Bortle/VIIRS) with the darkest spots starred. Free.

The whole sky drawn on your camera preview — before the light arrives.

Sky tab → Live View

Point the phone at the sky and it draws what's there: the moon's path with rise/set markers, the Milky Way core and the band's arc, constellations, stars, planets, the current bright comet, and any active meteor shower's radiant. Drag the time slider to see where everything will be later tonight. If headings look off, tap ALIGN and drag the sky onto reality to calibrate. The camera image never leaves your phone. (Pro.)

Pick one object and let the app walk your camera onto it.

Sky tab → Live View → CHOOSE TARGET

Tap CHOOSE TARGET for everything up tonight — planets, the galactic core, meteor radiants, bright stars, constellations, the comet — each listed with its current altitude and compass direction. Pick one and it pulses on screen, the rest dim back, and an arrow points the way when it's out of frame. Anything below the horizon says so rather than aiming you at the ground.

Dial the star field up for identifying, down for composing.

Sky tab → Live View → the sky-detail button

Cycles FULL (everything), GUIDE (the bright, named objects), and MINIMAL (moon and landmark only) so the planetarium never buries the shot you came for. Your choice sticks between sessions.

Live NOAA space weather turned into a go/no-go for your camera.

Aurora tab

Bz is the door (negative = energy in), Bt is the field strength, speed/density are the push, Kp is slow context, Hemi Power is the aurora's live wattage. Your location card gives a visibility %. (Pro.)

The full driver charts, time-shifted to what's hitting Earth now.

Aurora tab → DEEP DIVE button

Each driver plotted over recent hours with an Earth-now marker that accounts for satellite→Earth travel time.

Catch the sudden aurora burst that Kp misses.

Aurora tab → Substorm Mode

Walks the cycle QUIET → LOADING → ONSET WATCH → EXPANSION/LOOK UP → RECOVERY using the GOES magnetometer. When it says LOOK UP, shoot now. (Pro.)

Watch the solar wind hit Earth's field, live.

Aurora tab → the globe

Shows real-time compression, deflection, and polar funnels brightening as coupling strengthens — current conditions, not a loop.

How much color a sunrise/sunset will likely produce, hour by hour.

Emberlight tab (the flame)

A live heat map scores color potential across your region — bright cells are where the light lands. Tap any point for its breakdown; press & hold to score any spot. Switch sunset/sunrise with the controls. (Pro map; scores on Today are free.)

Check tonight's sunset and tomorrow's sunrise without waiting for the day to turn.

Emberlight tab → the two chips above the map

Emberlight opens on the next event and puts the one after it on a second chip, each carrying its own score. Tap to flip the whole map, pins and all, so you can decide whether the early alarm is worth setting.

Why its call differs from a plain cloud percentage.

Emberlight tab → tap any point for the breakdown

Color needs light to travel a long, clean path and then hit cloud from underneath. So the model reads the sky between you and the sun — not just the sky overhead — plus how high the cloud deck sits, which way the cloud is moving, moisture, and how much haze or smoke is in the air. When haze is muting the color, it names which kind.

Every sunrise and sunset for five days, scored, for your spots.

Emberlight tab → Your spots, or Field Guide → Emberlight

Each saved location gets score chips and a five-day strip so you can pick the evening worth clearing your schedule for. (Pro; the single next-event score on Today is free.)

Tonight's odds of glowing surf — bioluminescence potential.

Today tab → Bio Blue card (coastal spots)

Tap the Bio Blue card for the score and the reasons (water temp, surf agitation, recent conditions). It appears for coastal locations. Higher = better odds the waves glow.

The odds of a rainbow, so you can be positioned for it.

Today tab → Arclight card

Scores rainbow likelihood from sun angle and shower timing. Higher means keep the sun at your back and watch the opposite sky.

The one evening a full moon actually photographs well — which is rarely the night of.

Today tab → moon rows, and the Night Sky Planner

A full moon rising in full dark is a white blob over a black foreground. The app finds the evening where moonrise lands in blue hour instead — sky reading as night while the land still holds detail, so both fit in one frame. That's usually the night BEFORE exact fullness, and at 97%+ nobody can tell the difference. It names that night, the moonrise time, and flags supermoons. The dawn side is covered too, for west-facing subjects.

Every beach you care about, each with its own tide story.

Today tab → Tides card → tap for the full report

The card shows the day's curve, next highs/lows, and water temp. Tap it for the FULL report: one section per saved coastal spot — plus wherever GPS says you're standing — each with its NOAA station and distance, today's curve, the today-and-tomorrow high/low schedule with KING and MINUS tide flags, and the water temperature at that beach from the ocean model (never a river gauge).

Base, your spot, and summit each get their own forecast.

Today tab → Mountain chip (mountain spots)

For mountain locations the app reads the actual terrain around your spot and builds elevation bands — BASE, YOUR SPOT, and SUMMIT — each downscaled to its own altitude: temperature, wind, precip type, and the freezing level. A valley forecast lies about a ridgeline; this doesn't. (Pro.)

An animated weather map built for astrophotographers.

Today tab → Sky Cover (and its own view)

Scrub layers hour by hour: CLOUDS, CLARITY (transparency incl. smoke), FOG, RADAR, lightning STRIKES, WIND, and SMOKE. Tap the chips to switch layers; drag the timeline. (Pro.)

Live strikes on the map, aged over the last hour.

Sky Cover → STRIKES chip

Shows real strikes color-aged over 60 minutes. Turn on Lightning Alerts to get pushed when strikes land within your radius (25, 50, or 100 mi) — the map covers the same full 100 miles. Not a safety warning system — always follow official guidance. (Pro.)

Wildfire smoke forecast, so haze doesn't wreck the shot.

Sky Cover → SMOKE chip

NOAA HRRR-Smoke 3 km forecast — clean air stays transparent, plumes render in the spectral ramp. Scrub the timeline to see it drift. (Pro; a Sky Cover layer.)

Every alert you've received, explained, in one place.

Today tab → Signals row (top)

When Shutter Scout sends an alert, a receipt lands here. Tap the row to read recent alerts; tapping one jumps to the feature that raised it. Hidden until your first alert.

Get pushed when the sky is worth going out for.

Settings → Alerts

Turn on aurora/substorm alerts; delivered when conditions cross a threshold for your location. (Pro.)

A heads-up before a high-scoring sunrise/sunset at your spots.

Settings → Alerts

Turn on Emberlight Alerts; you're notified with enough lead time to drive to the window. (Pro.)

A time-sensitive push when strikes land near you.

Settings → Alerts → Lightning (or the Sky Cover deck)

Set a radius (10/25/50 mi); alerts fire when strikes land within it, even with the app closed. Planning notifications, not a safety system. (Pro.)

A reminder before a shower's best night for your sky.

Settings → Alerts → Meteor showers

Turn it on; you're notified ~48 h before a well-scored peak window at your location. (Pro.)

An on-device photography companion that knows tonight's briefing.

Today tab → chat bubble in the header

Tap the chat icon to ask about tonight's plan, gear, technique, or how a feature works. Runs entirely on your phone, offline.

Protect your night vision — flood the screen red, app-wide.

Today tab → moon icon in the header (or Action button / Siri)

Tap the red-light button to enter; the slider dims the whole screen for true darkness. Great for reading the app in the field without ruining your eyes.

A red-light cockpit of live aurora numbers for the field.

Aurora tab → Chase Mode (or the widget / Siri)

A stripped-down, red-tinted dashboard of Bz/Bt/Kp and live routing to dark skies — built to read at 2 a.m. (Pro.)

Live Bz/Bt/Kp on your Home Screen; launch tools by voice.

Home Screen widgets + Siri Shortcuts

Add Shutter Scout widgets for live space-weather numbers; use Siri/App Shortcuts to open Red Light, Chase Mode, or ask an Aurora/Emberlight check.

Make the app yours — units, alert timing, app icon, red-light default.

Settings

Set metric/imperial, alert lead time, custom app icons, the AI voice, and the red-light default. The Field Manual (this help) also lives here.

Know when the numbers you're reading were actually fetched.

Everywhere live data appears — pull down on Today to force it

Weather watches and warnings, tide alerts, and the space-weather readings re-check whenever you return to the app, on a timer while it stays open, and instantly on pull-to-refresh. Each feed has its own sensible interval — solar wind moves in seconds, weather alerts in minutes. Pull-to-refresh overrides all of them and fetches everything now.

Buying Lifetime does not automatically stop a subscription you're already paying.

Settings → Shutter Scout Pro

A one-time Lifetime purchase and an auto-renewing subscription are separate things to Apple, so a running subscription or free trial keeps billing after you buy Lifetime. The app detects the overlap and warns you — but only you can cancel, in Apple's Settings → your name → Subscriptions. Do that and your Lifetime access stays untouched.