An almanac by day · a red deck at night
Telescope Log: Darksite.
Know what's worth observing tonight, with your telescope. Darksite is a telescope observing log and tonight planner for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android and Windows. It plans your night around your own gear, logs what you see, and keeps every record on your device. No account, no subscription.
Get Darksite
iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android & Windows available now
Planned around your gear, not a generic list
What should I observe tonight?
Darksite reads the night (astronomical dark, the moon, cloud and conditions, space weather), then picks targets that actually fit your telescope and eyepieces. Each pick reads in plain language, never an opaque score: when it peaks, how high it climbs, whether it frames in your field, and how far the moon sits from it.
The same screen · red field on
One white flash costs you 30 minutes
A genuine red-lit instrument at the eyepiece.
At the scope, every Darksite screen renders deep red on near-black with a brightness floor, no white flash on any screen, ever. A custom red keyboard, big-step steppers and voice-first capture mean you log an observation without ever reaching for a phone that blinds you. It's the whole app, night-vision safe.
Plan indoors, observe outside
The desk view and the field view, one log.
On Mac and Windows, Darksite opens into a wide planning desk: the almanac, your queue and the full log side by side. On iPhone and Android it folds down to a one-handed red deck you can work at the eyepiece. Same app, same records, no account tying them together.
Needs iOS or iPadOS 18 or later, macOS 15 or later on an Apple silicon Mac, Android 10 or later, or Windows 10 build 17763 or later.
What's inside
Built for how you actually observe.
Darksite is for the visual amateur astronomer who owns a telescope and a case of eyepieces, drives out to a dark site, and works observing programs like the Messier or Herschel 400. It is not a planetarium, and it is not built for astrophotography rigs or casual name-that-star apps.
Gear-aware picks
Add your telescopes, eyepieces and filters once. Darksite does the field-of-view and exit-pupil math and only suggests what your setup can actually show, framed in the eyepiece you'd reach for.
Sketches & voice
Log every session with a round eyepiece-view sketch field, seeing and transparency scale, NELM and SQM, and a voice clip captured at the scope, all red-safe, all on your device.
Work your programs
Track Messier, Herschel and Lunar observing programs as a completion matrix toward the certificate, with coordinator-ready exports when you're ready to submit your work.
Night vision, kept
A first-class red-on-black mode with a brightness floor and a custom in-field keyboard, no white flash on any Darksite screen, so your dark adaptation survives the whole session.
Know the night
Cloud & conditions, transparency and seeing, geomagnetic activity for aurora watchers, and visible ISS passes for your site, the context that decides whether tonight is worth setting up.
Private & offline
No account, no ads. Your gear, logs, sites and lists live on your device, and your observing coordinates never leave it. Backup, restore and export are free, forever.
Simple, honest
Free to observe. One purchase to go unlimited.
Darksite is free to download. The free tier has an unlimited observing log, the gear locker, the Messier life-list up to 70 objects, and backup, restore and export. Darksite Pro is a one-time in-app purchase of $29.99. No subscription.
Free
- The gear-aware Tonight planner
- Unlimited observing log with a sketch per session
- Messier life-list, free up to 70 objects
- Cloud & conditions, space weather & ISS passes
- Red field night-vision mode
- Backup, restore & export: always free
Darksite Pro
- The full observing-programs library
- Coordinator-ready validated exports
- Week-ahead planning
- Sketch canvas & multiple photos per observation
- Advanced statistics
Pay once. No subscription. Ever.
Before you install
Questions
What is Darksite?
Darksite is a telescope observing log and tonight planner for amateur astronomers. It picks targets that fit your own telescope and eyepieces, explains each pick in plain language, runs the session in a red night-vision-safe mode, and keeps a searchable log with Messier, Herschel 400 and Lunar life-lists. It is not a planetarium.
Who is Darksite for?
Darksite is for the visual amateur astronomer who owns one or more telescopes and a case of eyepieces, drives out to a dark site, and works observing programs. If you want a name-that-star app, or you run an astrophotography rig with guiding and sequencing, Darksite is not built for you.
How much does Darksite cost, and is there a subscription?
Darksite is free to download. The free tier includes an unlimited observing log, the gear locker, the Messier life-list up to 70 objects, and backup, restore and export. Darksite Pro is a one-time in-app purchase of $29.99. It unlocks the full observing-programs library, coordinator-ready exports and week-ahead planning. There is no subscription.
Which platforms does Darksite run on?
Darksite runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android and Windows. It is on the App Store, the Mac App Store, Google Play and the Microsoft Store now. On Mac and Windows it opens as a wide planning desk. On iPhone and Android it folds down to a one-handed red deck you can work at the eyepiece.
Do I need an account, and is my observing data private?
No account, no login, no cloud. Darksite is local-first: your gear, logs, sites and life-lists stay on your device, and there are no ads or tracking. Your dark-site coordinates never leave the device, and they are rounded or redacted in ordinary exports, so sharing a log does not give away your spot.
Can I back up or export my observing log?
Yes, and it is free on every tier. Darksite backs up and restores your whole observing database as a file you keep, and exports your log. Backups are your files, not a cloud service. Darksite Pro adds coordinator-ready exports for Messier, Herschel 400 and Lunar programs, formatted to each program's required log fields and checked against its rules.
Is Darksite an alternative to SkySafari?
For planning and logging, yes. SkySafari is a planetarium; its observing-conditions feature sits behind a subscription on top of a paid app. Darksite is not a planetarium. It is the gear-aware planner and logbook that works alongside the sky map you already own, with cloud and conditions included, for one payment and no subscription.
How does Darksite protect my night vision at the scope?
Red field mode renders every Darksite screen deep red on near-black with a brightness floor, so there is no white flash on any screen. Because the system keyboard cannot be themed, Darksite ships its own red keyboard. Big-step controls and voice capture let you log an observation in seconds without losing your dark adaptation.