Celestron SkyPortal

• Free

Last verified 31 Jul 2026

3.6 347 ratings · App Store

1. 4/5App is simplistic perfection

   I was introduced to sky portal when I got a celestron go to telescope a short time ago and it’s become my primary astronomy app since it easy to use, contains a through library of visible objects in the night sky of the northern hemisphere and with the compass mode gives you a rough view of the sky you are looking at in real time, my only recommendations for anyone using this app would be to use it on a iPad or tablet over a smartphone as the arrow keys used to slew a telescope and the crosshairs used to target an object can be tricky to use on the smaller screen. It would be nice if there were more satellites and objects listed maybe that’s what Sky Safari Pro is for and I may upgrade one day but at the moment Sky Portal meets the means for my backyard astronomical observations. App is 4 stars

   Jm the Duke · 31 Jul 2026

2. 3/5Most recent release introduced a new feature, infinite CTD’s.

   I have been using this app with my iPad Pro 12.9,” and I cannot say enough how wonderful this app is. It felt so refreshing to be using an app that wasn’t developed specifically to nickel & dime the user every second. Plus, the fact that this app is able to scale to the 12.9” Pro’s screen size correctly makes it even more enjoyable. I love the overall UI design as it is very intuitive for the most part. Yes there are plenty of both single payment and micro transaction based apps that may offer a bit more. Though when you consider that at least for now, this app is completely free, the app itself becomes quite a compelling offer. That being said, only time will tell if this remains the case in future versions of the app. Unfortunately, two things are impacting my current rating. First is the red night vision option for the UI of the app. While I do not find this UI setting bad, I would prefer if it also had a custom color option as well. If I am using the app for a long period of time at night, the red causes my eyes to feel strained. Also, the red in fact can also make it harder to see the overall UI. Perhaps a night vision like setting using a single or custom color option that allowed you to see the app information would be better than just a simple all red overlay. Second is a more pressing issue that I already see other reviews bringing up, the new unending startup crashes. Since the last update, I cannot use the app at all. I’m running iOS 11 currently, and all I see is about 10-15 seconds of launch screen before immediate crash to home screen. This needs to be fixed in the next update as the app is currently useless right now.

   01293021303 · 31 Jul 2026

3. 4/5Quite a bit inaccurate on determining the location of planets, stars, nebulas, and etc.

   I’ve tried to get my telescope centered using this app by aligning it to the moon’s location, and I’m being dissatisfied by the app’s performance as when I tried to aligning the telescope through the app, the lens showed a blank sky because the telescope was offset to the right of the telescope’s direction of focus. I had to literally manually align the telescope due to this. I do have a screenshot of what I am speaking of. Finding planets took me time because of a similar scenario. It would be great if the app could make improvements with aligning the iPhone so that telescope users won’t have to turn on their battery powered laser that comes with their StarSense explorer telescopes or any other telescope of this brand.

   #Mo_Ali · 31 Jul 2026

4. 3/5Intriguing... Some striking issues, but nice app!

   If this new version is supposedly based on SkySafari 6, why do the photos still show *six* icons on the toolbar?! Clearly, they have haven’t updated their photos! HOPE THEY’VE FIXED THE FOLLOWING! Why do DSOs not show up on the screen, even when ON is selected? Why do their labels not appear? This is with a large magnitude number selected--i.e., mag 12, so even very faint DSOs should be on the screen. That's a big deficiency. We'd want to see the deep space objects in the sky, so we could select them for information or slew to them. As set up, you have to know what's up before you can find out what's up! There are audio descriptions for many objects-- these are well done, and it's a nice feature, but the first one I listened to had the wrong info-- M33 is not "over 3 million light years away"! And that contradicted the descriptive text info that shows it as 2.8 million! (And, even that may be a little farther than it actually is. One recent report has it as a toss-up with the Andromeda Galaxy as to distance.) Finally, in the "unsettling" category-- what's the comet near the feet of Gemini--January 26, 2015? It shows Comet Lovejoy elsewhere in the sky--and labelled nicely--but this unknown comet is neither labeled or selectable! It also doesn't show up in Sky Safari 4! Given that this was originally based upon versions Sky Safari 4 and 5, I'd recommend trying this out and then springing for the real app! Still, keeping this around could be good for the audio blurbs! (No longer an issue as SkySafari has now incorporated the audio from this app into its own!) Keep in mind as well that SkySafari Basic is now FREE, so that is another route for checking out that app.

   AstroPaul · 31 Jul 2026

5. 5/5Great app for learning and controlling telescope. One improvement.

   I love this app however I have one suggestion for improvement: When using the audio guides in the Info section, let the audio playback continue to work when the screen locks or auto locks. Many people have their phones set to auto lock after as little as 30 seconds and when this happens any audio playback currently in progress instantly shuts off when the phone locks. Only unlocking the phone will instantly resume playback. Seems like that improvement should be possible based on many other apps out there being able to play audio while the phone is locked. Thank you!

   virtualMtd · 31 Jul 2026

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