FROM AFTERWORK STUDIO
SkyWonder
“The real sky, in your hand.”
SkyWonder turns your iPhone into a window onto the real sky. Point the camera and the stars, the planets and all 88 constellations are drawn exactly where they are, with live gravity and true-north alignment. Every astronomical calculation runs offline, on the device — no connection and no account required.
- Platform
- iPhone · iOS 18+
- Category
- Planetarium · AR observing
- Languages
- Greek · English · Italian · Spanish · French
- Status
- In active development (0.9.5)
The difference: honesty
When the phone’s compass gets it wrong — as it does next to railings, cars or magnetic cases — you do not have to fight it: you touch the Moon, or a star you recognise, right where you see it in the live view, and the sky corrects itself instantly. No steady hand, no technical knowledge needed.
Most sky apps always show a "perfect" sky — even when they do not know where you are pointing. SkyWonder never claims more than it knows: it shows the current orientation uncertainty in degrees, explicitly separates "guided" from "verified", declares its imagery as reference visualisation rather than live photography, and backs every scientific statement with its source.
No ads, no tracking, no account — your location stays on the device.
What it does
Live AR over the real sky
With one-touch alignment and optional two-reference verification. The camera opens only when the Sun is safely below the horizon — solar safety is built in, not a footnote.
Stars in their real colours
From the catalogue’s B–V photometric index: Vega blue-white, Arcturus golden, Antares orange. The horizon breathes with the twilight, with the cardinal points always visible.
Planets you can tell apart at a glance
Saturn with its ring, Jupiter with its bands, Mars red — small schematic portraits, not anonymous dots.
"Tonight"
Suggestions with an explainable visibility score, the best time for each target and a full 16:00–08:00 schedule in half-hour steps — all computed locally.
Knowledge Atlas
100 complete bilingual dossiers, 400 sourced facts and guides for all 88 constellations — every claim with its primary source.
"Depth Lens"
A constellation becomes a rotating 3D model built from real catalogue distances — and you see that the familiar shape exists only from Earth’s point of view.
Offline scientific catalogue
1,000 stars (HYG v4.1) and 110 Messier objects, with full data provenance, a common J2000 epoch and integrity checking.
Guided sessions
"Find → observe → explain → record", plus a personal observing journal that never leaves the iPhone.
Red night mode
To protect your dark adaptation, along with full accessibility: VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, Reduce Motion/Transparency.
Five languages
Greek, English, Italian, Spanish and French — across the interface, the catalogue, search and permission messages.
Inside the app
SkyWonder is in active development (version 0.9.5). Field verification under a real night sky is under way ahead of version 1.0.