ATLAS answers one question: what is actually worth imaging from your backyard tonight?

Tell it where you are, and it scores the deep sky objects above your horizon by weighing the six factors that decide whether a target is worth the night: altitude, separation from the moon, moon illumination, sky brightness at your site, how long it stays inside your imaging window, and where it sits in its season.

You get a ranked answer in seconds, instead of an hour across three apps and a weather site.

WHAT IS INSIDE

Best targets
A ranked list of targets scored for your location, the night you pick and the forecast. Open any object to see its altitude curve, transit time, angular size, magnitude, and a plain reading of why it scored the way it did.

An interactive 3D sky
Messier, NGC, IC, Caldwell and Sharpless on a dome you can spin, zoom and scrub through time, forward or back by years. Search any designation or common name, fly to it, and see when it is highest.

Conditions
A one line call for each night, five nights side by side, and cloud cover and wind hour by hour, with rain, the moon and darkness.

Gear aware framing
Enter your telescope, reducer and camera and ATLAS frames each target the way your rig will see it. Drag and twist the frame on the sky, then send it to NINA with its position angle.

PLAN A YEAR AHEAD

The imaging planner answers the question that decides a project: when can I shoot this, and for how long. Pick a target and ATLAS works out the next twelve months from your location, your horizon and your gear: which nights are worth it, how many usable hours each one gives you, and which months carry the season. It is sky geometry, not a forecast.

PLAN THE NIGHT

Lay a night out on a timeline: each target's altitude through the dark hours, with the hours you will image it marked. Drag either end to change them. A trip is the same plan at another place, with the dark hours and the moon for each night. Each saved place keeps its own sky quality and horizon line.

BUILT FROM A LIGHT POLLUTED ROOFTOP

ATLAS was built by an astrophotographer in Chicago who has put over 750 hours of integration on deep sky objects from a Bortle 9 rooftop. The scoring is tuned for that: real skies, real obstructions, a real moon in the way.

You do not need dark skies or expensive gear to do serious astrophotography. You do need to spend your clear nights on the right target. That is what this is for.

FREE TO USE

ATLAS is free to use, with no account required. Tonight's best targets, the 3D sky, conditions, search, framing and My List on your device stay free, and with an account, a note before dark on clear nights. No ads, no full screen upsells.

Astronomer is an optional subscription for planning ahead and going deeper: target alerts, My List saved with your account, Plan and trips, the twelve month planner, Universe view, mosaics, cloud heights, transparency, the fainter NGC, IC and Sharpless objects, emission profiles, Compare framings, and lists of your places and rigs. One page shows what it includes; nothing opens on its own.

Astronomer is billed monthly or yearly through Google Play and renews until you cancel it in Google Play, Payments and subscriptions. Prices are shown in the app before you subscribe.

DATA AND CREDITS

Star data from the HYG Database v3.8 (CC BY-SA 2.5), compiled by David Nash. Deep sky data from OpenNGC v2024.02 (CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled by Mattia Verga. Solar system positions, twilight and moon phase from astronomy-engine. Weather from Open-Meteo. Place names from OpenStreetMap and Nominatim.

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Privacy Policy: https://atlas.m102astro.com/privacy

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