Celestron SkyPortal

• Free to download

Last verified 31 Jul 2026

3.6 347 ratings · App Store

1. 1/5Has a major issue!

   Discovered that the app has a bug where it does not show any Deep Sky Objects (nebulae, galaxies) on the sky chart. I tried every single option in settings to make them visible but nothing works. You can search for them and then it will center them BUT no luck in getting DSOs to show up in charts. I found a review from 2 years ago complaining about the same thing so not a recent issue so guessing Celestron is not planning on fixing it. I bought the wifi adapter for my 6SE to use this app to find and slew my scope to objects in the sky but without seeing DSOs on sky chart that severely limits it. Too bad. Will be returning the wifi adapter.

   netsurfr1 · 31 Jul 2026

2. 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

3. 1/5Junk

   This is a terrible downsized version of a great app (sky safari). It will not consistently go-to, it won't keep the settings that you've put in the hand controller (max elevation,cordwrap!etc.) the cordwrap setting doesn’t work—if you try to use this with your scope remote it will wrap itself to a grinding standstill. The only reason I have this is that it is the only thing offered with Celestron's Wi-fi module. I'm junking both the module and the program and going back to the Orion setup that allows use of SkySafari Newest view—-IF you have sky safari already you can use the Celstron wi-fi module by bypassing this junk and selecting “Celestron Wi-Fi “in the telescope drop down in the Telescope settings in SkySafari .It ties you in and works!! (Even though your scope is NOT a Wi-Fi scope)

   Ridgesoar · 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. 3/5Works, but not as I want it to

   I finally got my first celestron 6se telescope that is one of the Best purchases I’ve bought. With that, I also bought the WiFi module that connects to SkyPortal. For about five months I was trying to align the app to my telescope. The app estimates where your telescope is pointing for extra accuracy, but for an odd reason, my pointer on the app is nowhere close to where the telescope is actually pointing. Though this is a minor problem one may say, but because the pointer on the app is so inaccurate, whenever I try aligning, the second star always says that there was an error. The error was that the app says that the alignment for, say Jupiter, is impossible in that location. If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated.

   JOIN Cat-O-Rama · 31 Jul 2026

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