An arrow over the real sky
Search for any planet, star, constellation or satellite and follow the arrow in the camera view until the target is locked in the centre. Or point the phone at anything bright and the app names it.
Press kit
Star & Planet Finder, for press
Star & Planet Finder turns the iPhone into an AR arrow that leads you to any planet, star, constellation or satellite - including every ISS and Starlink pass over your location, with a reminder before it rises.
Fact sheet
2010On the App Store since
2.5MStars, searchable offline
10,000+Satellites tracked live
88Constellations
70Languages
- Name
- Star & Planet Finder
- Developer
- Nir Alperovitch, independent developer
- Platforms
- iPhone and iPad, iOS 18 or later
- First released
- 2010. Rebuilt from scratch in 2026
- Price
- Free to download. Optional Pro upgrade: monthly, yearly or one-time
- App Store
- apps.apple.com/app/id361753588
- Website
- starplanetfinder.com
- Press contact
- support@starplanetfinder.com
What the app does
Every satellite pass over you
More than 10,000 satellites are tracked live, including the ISS, Tiangong, Hubble and Starlink. The app lists the passes visible from your location and reminds you before one rises.
Rehearse a pass before it happens
Each flyover can be replayed in 3D ahead of time: where the spacecraft rises, how high it climbs, where it fades into Earth’s shadow.
A planetarium on the iPad
Lay an iPad flat and the sky becomes a chart to pan and pinch. Connect a projector or AirPlay display and the chart or the 3D globe fills it without the controls, for classrooms and star parties.
Three stories
Starting points, with the material on this site to back them.
Tonight’s sky event, for your readers’ city
When the space station makes a bright pass, or the planets line up after sunset, this site gives the local time and the direction to look for hundreds of cities. Link to your city’s page, or quote the times from it.
A 2010 App Store app, rebuilt by its solo developer
Star & Planet Finder has been on the App Store since 2010. In 2026 its developer rebuilt it from scratch in SwiftUI and brought it to the iPad.
How crowded the sky has become
The live globe on this site shows every tracked satellite at its real position, updated several times a day. More than four in five of them are Starlink. It is free to link to and to screenshot.
Video
The app’s App Store previews. Each can be downloaded at full size, 886 × 1920, without sound.
Screenshots
Taken on an iPhone. Each opens at full size, 1320 × 2868. All of them are in the press kit.
The camera view locked on the International Space Station
The Hubble Space Telescope in the viewfinder, over a city
The sky view with constellation figures and the Milky Way
The Milky Way and its nebulae
The Andromeda Galaxy
Flyovers: the passes visible from your location
A pass in progress, with the arrow in the camera view
The 3D globe with a space station’s orbit
The ISS in 3D above the Earth
The view from the ISS, and what is docked to it
A satellite’s page: live height and speed
Explore: planets, stars, constellations, satellites
Night vision: a red screen for dark-adapted eyesApp icon
PNG, 1024 × 1024, square. iOS rounds the corners itself.
Download the icon
Using these materials
Everything on this page may be used in editorial coverage of Star & Planet Finder. Please credit screenshots and video to “Star & Planet Finder”. Satellite positions come from public orbital data published by CelesTrak.
For a review copy with Pro unlocked, a quote, or times and screenshots for a specific city and date, write to support@starplanetfinder.com.
Try it under a real sky.
The app is free to download.
Download on the App Store