I used to just point my camera at the sky and hope for the best

Phoenix Palmer · 2026-03-15T22:10:04.172369+00:00

Now I use a free app called Stellarium to plan my shots for the exact time and location, which showed me when the Milky Way would be perfectly positioned over Mount Rainier. Anyone have other free planning tools they like?

the_jesse6mo ago

Stellarium is awesome for sure, but it's actually not free anymore on mobile. The desktop version is still free, which is probably what you're using. For phones, I've had good luck with PhotoPills for planning, even though it's a paid app. Their augmented reality feature is pretty wild for seeing where the Milky Way will be.

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lisa7496mo ago

Lol the_jesse out here making it sound like we're planning a moon landing. It's just stars, not that serious.

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charles7666mo ago

But isn't half the fun just seeing what you get? All that planning takes the surprise out of it for me.

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blakem136mo ago

What kind of gear are you using now? I remember that feeling of just hoping for a good shot, it was so frustrating. Stellarium was a total game changer for me too.

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