Support

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A question, a bug, or a pass that didn’t behave as expected? Write to us and a person will reply.

It helps to include:

• your iPhone or iPad model and the iOS version;
• the app version (You › Data and Credits › Version);
• if it was about a pass: which satellite, when, and where you were watching from (a city is enough).

Satellity is coming soon to the App Store. Until it’s out, the answers below describe the app as it will ship.

Seeing Satellites

Why didn’t I see the satellite?

“Will I see it?” is a forecast, not a promise. Each pass gets a score from 0 to 100 from how bright the satellite is against your sky at that moment, the Moon, how high it climbs, how long it’s visible, and the cloud forecast. The score falls into one of six bands: You’ll see it, Very likely, Possible, Unlikely, Almost impossible, and Not visible. The usual reasons for missing one:

• Clouds. The forecast comes from Apple Weather and can be wrong, and a single cloud can hide a short pass. If the app says “No cloud data,” the score doesn’t account for clouds at all.
• Your sky is brighter than the app thinks. Tell it in You › Your Sky › Where You Watch From: City, Suburbs or Small Town, or Countryside, No Lights. Streetlights and a bright Moon hide faint satellites.
• It was low. Buildings and trees hide the first fists above the horizon. Height is given in fists at arm’s length (one fist is about 10°).
• It faded early. Satellites shine with sunlight and disappear when they enter Earth’s shadow, often in the middle of the sky. The pass details tell you where that happens.
• Its brightness was an estimate. For the ISS, Tiangong, Hubble, and the objects the Mini-MegaTORTORA telescope has measured, the app knows the brightness; Starlink’s comes from its altitude and version. For many rocket stages and satellites it estimates it from their size, which can be a magnitude or more off, so those passes can’t score above Very likely (rocket stages) or Possible (satellites). “Why this score?” in the pass details says which kind it is.
• The time moved. Orbits are updated several times a day, and times can shift a little. Open the app shortly before the pass to get the latest.

After a pass you were alerted about, Satellity asks “Did you see it?” Your answers stay on your device, but if you share them with us (You › What You’ve Seen › Share Answers), they help make “Will I see it?” more accurate.

Why are most passes just after sunset or before sunrise?

You see a satellite when the Sun still lights it up high above you while your own sky is already dark. That happens in the hours after sunset and before sunrise; later in the night, most satellites are in Earth’s shadow. Satellity only lists a pass as visible when the Sun is at least 6° below your horizon.

Why does Satellity need my location?

Satellites cross different places at different times, so Satellity needs to know where you are to work out your passes. It asks for your location only while you use the app, calculates everything on your device, and keeps your last location, rounded to about 100 meters, so alerts stay up to date in the background. Your location only leaves the device to ask Apple Weather for the cloud forecast; see the Privacy Policy. Without it, there are no passes to show: tap Use My Location, or allow it in Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Satellity. If you travel, open the app at your new place so it can recalculate.

Alerts and the Guide

How do alerts work?

Tap Alert Me on any pass, or turn on Alert Me About the Best Pass Each Night in You › Your Alerts. The automatic alert picks one pass a night: the one the app rates highest among satellites whose brightness it knows and that stays steady, and only when it’s Very likely or better. To get every good pass of one satellite, open its page and tap Alert Me to Its Passes. Choose how early alerts arrive in You › Your Alerts › When to Alert Me: 5, 10, or 15 minutes before. A pass that’s already closer than that gets no alert; use Guide Me instead.

Pass alerts are sent as Time Sensitive notifications. Whether they appear while a Focus such as Do Not Disturb is on depends on that Focus: allow Time Sensitive Notifications in its settings, and check Settings › Notifications › Satellity. The “Did you see it?” question and the transit alerts are ordinary notifications. You can see what will arrive and when in You › Your Alerts › Scheduled Alerts.

My alerts stopped arriving. Why?

Alerts are scheduled on your device each time Satellity calculates the coming week, and iOS decides when the app may do that in the background. If you don’t open Satellity for several days, or if you force-quit it, the alerts can run out. Open the app every few days and they’ll be scheduled again. With the automatic alert on, Satellity alerts you if it hasn’t been able to update for six days. Also check that notifications are allowed for Satellity in Settings › Notifications.

Do I need to keep the app open during a pass?

For the guide, yes. The full-screen guide, with the arrow, the countdown, and the sound guide, only works while Satellity is open: locking the phone stops the compass and the motion sensors. You can lock your phone before the pass: the alert lets you know, and tapping it opens the guide. From 30 minutes before, Guide Me appears on the pass, and tapping the Lock Screen countdown also opens the guide directly. From the time of your alert, the guide keeps the screen on until the pass ends. In Options, Sound Guide adds a voice and a sonar that beeps faster as you get closer, so you can look at the sky instead of the screen; it plays even with your iPhone on silent.

The arrow or the compass points the wrong way.

The phone’s compass is a magnetometer, and iron and magnets bend it. When Satellity notices, it says so: move away from cars, streetlights, and magnetic cases (including MagSafe accessories), and if it asks you to, move your phone in a figure eight. In the Sky Camera (Satellity Pro), Adjust the Compass lets you line it up with the Moon, a planet, or a star. On a device without a compass, the guide shows the sky map instead.

What is Night Mode (Red)?

Red light doesn’t ruin your night vision, which takes about 20 minutes to build up and is lost in seconds to a white screen. Turn it on in You › Preferences › Night Mode › Night Mode (Red), set its intensity there, and leave Turn It On When the Guide Opens at Night on to get it automatically in the guide after dark. It’s also in the guide’s Options menu and in Control Center (Night Mode). The clock, notifications, and keyboard are drawn by iOS, so the app can’t tint them; to get them red too, turn on Settings › Accessibility › Display & Text Size › Color Filters › Color Tint, and assign it to the Accessibility Shortcut to switch it with a triple-click of the side button.

How do I get the countdown on my Lock Screen, and the widgets?

For passes with an alert, Satellity can show a countdown, where to look, and when the satellite fades on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. On iOS 26 it appears by itself 15 minutes before the pass; on iOS 18 to 25, when you open Satellity within 4 hours before the pass or tap its alert. Turn it on or off in You › Countdown on the Lock Screen, or per pass with Follow This Pass on the Lock Screen. If nothing shows up, check that Live Activities are on in Settings › Satellity.

Satellity also has a Next Pass widget for the Home Screen, the Lock Screen, and StandBy; two Control Center controls, Night Mode and Next Pass; and Siri shortcuts: “When does ISS pass in Satellity?”, “What can I see tonight in Satellity?”, or “Open the next pass in Satellity.” The widgets show what the app last calculated, so open it now and then.

Satellity Pro

What’s free, and what is Satellity Pro?

Satellity is free, with an optional Satellity Pro: one week free, then yearly, or a one-time purchase. The App Store shows the price in your currency.

Free, with no ads and no time limit: passes and “Will I see it?”, every pass alert, the Lock Screen countdown, the widgets, the guide, Night Mode (Red), the sky map, “What’s overhead?”, the globe with the satellites the app knows and the geostationary belt, and Explore, with satellite pages, the space stations, launches, and reentries.

Satellity Pro adds: All Starlink on the Globe, The Whole Catalog on the Globe, See Earth from the ISS, “What was that?”, the Sky Camera, Transits Across the Sun and Moon, Alerts for Any Satellite, and Satellites in Your Frame. The yearly subscription comes with a one-week free trial if you haven’t had one.

How do I restore Satellity Pro, or cancel my subscription?

Pro belongs to your Apple Account, so it follows you to every iPhone and iPad signed in with it. If a device doesn’t show it, go to You › Satellity Pro › Restore Purchases (it’s also on the purchase screen). If the app finds no purchase, check that you’re online, that you’re signed in to the right Apple Account and, for a subscription, that it’s still active.

To cancel, go to Settings › [your name] › Subscriptions on your iPhone or iPad (or open your Apple subscriptions), or use You › Satellity Pro › Manage Subscription in the app. Cancel at least 24 hours before the renewal date so the next year isn’t charged; you keep Pro until the end of the period you paid for. The one-time purchase never renews. Refunds are decided by Apple and requested at reportaproblem.apple.com.

Can my family use Satellity Pro?

Yes. Both plans work with Family Sharing, so members of your family group get Pro on their own devices, and the app shows “Shared by your family.” Only the person who pays can manage or cancel the subscription. If the organizer stops sharing, the other members lose Pro.

The App and Its Data

Does Satellity work on iPad, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, or Apple Watch?

Satellity is made for iPhone and iPad, with iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 or later. The app is the same on iPad, except for what iPad hardware doesn’t have, like vibration or the Dynamic Island. On Apple Vision Pro you can use the iPad app; there’s no version made for it. There’s no Mac or Apple Watch version.

Where does the data come from, and how fresh is it?

Satellite orbits and reentries come from USSPACECOM via Space-Track.org. Our server checks for new orbits every hour, and the app downloads them when they change; You › Data and Credits shows the newest orbit data and when it was last checked, and the app warns you if they get old. Clouds come from Apple Weather. Launches and crews come from The Space Devs. Satellite and rocket stage sizes come from GCAT (J. McDowell), and measured brightness from the Mini-MegaTORTORA telescope. The full list is in Data Sources and Credits.

Passes are calculated on your device, so the app keeps working offline with the last data it downloaded; you only need a connection for new orbits, clouds, and the Explore news. The full catalog, tens of thousands of objects, is downloaded only if you ask. Reentry dates come with a window, and Satellity doesn’t say where an object will fall.

Can I change the language or the units?

Satellity speaks English and Spanish and follows your device’s language; in any other language, it uses English. To change it for Satellity only, go to Settings › Apps › Satellity › Language. Distances are set in You › Your Sky › Distances and Speeds: Automatic (miles in the US and the UK, kilometers elsewhere), Kilometers, or Miles. Heights are always in fists and degrees.

Data Sources and Credits

Satellity builds on public data and open work. Each source is cited where its license asks for it.

Orbits and reentries

USSPACECOM via Space-Track.org

Cloud forecast

Apple Weather

Launches and crews

The Space Devs

Satellite and rocket stage measurements

GCAT: data by J. McDowell, planet4589.org, CC BY 4.0

Brightness calibration

Mini-MegaTORTORA: Karpov et al. (2016), RMxAC 48, 112; Beskin et al. (2017), Astrophys. Bull. 72, 81

Starlink brightness

A. Mallama et al., CC BY 4.0 (adapted)

Earth, Moon, and Sun textures

Solar System Scope, CC BY 4.0 (adapted)

Stars

Yale Bright Star Catalogue, 5th ed. (Hoffleit and Warren, 1991), via NASA HEASARC

Constellations

d3-celestial © 2015 Olaf Frohn (BSD); figures by the IAU and Sky & Telescope (CC BY 4.0)

Typeface (this website)

Sora, SIL Open Font License 1.1

Satellity is an independent app, not affiliated with NASA, USSPACECOM, or Space-Track. The full open-source licenses are in the app, under You › Data and Credits.