Earth, Moon & sky,
computed on your wrist.
Planetaria for Wear OS is the desk globe's little sibling, computed on a watch for right now. Day and night fall where the computed Sun puts them, with the season, over clouds from a recent NASA mosaic. Earthquakes are marked at their epicentres, the ISS crosses on its published orbit, and city lights come on where night has fallen. Swipe sideways for the Moon, the Sun and every planet; swipe up for tonight's cards.
Computed minute by minute
Each frame is computed for the minute you look: the Sun's position for this minute and season, over NASA's cloud mosaic, with the earthquake, aurora and ISS data the watch downloads when you open it and about every three hours. Set Motion to time-lapse and, at its fastest, the Earth turns a whole day in a minute.
Day and night, computed
The terminator is placed astronomically, with a soft twilight band where dusk is falling. The day side carries clouds from a recent NASA VIIRS daily mosaic, a day or more old; the night side glows with city lights.
Quakes, the ISS and the aurora, centred on you
Magnitude 4.5+ earthquakes from the past two days are marked at their epicentres, larger for stronger ones and fading as they age; in the 48-hour replay each one ripples out as it strikes. The ISS crosses on its published orbit, and NOAA's aurora forecast glows over the night side. Each layer can be switched off. Set Centre on to Home and your place sits at the middle of the disc.
Every world, lit by its own Sun
Swipe sideways through the worlds in solar-system order: outward to the Moon, Mars, the giants and the night sky, sunward to Venus, Mercury and the Sun. Each planet is placed by ephemerides tested against NASA JPL Horizons and lit from its own pole and season, so Uranus is lit from its pole and Saturn wears its rings. Each world shows its distance from the Earth now. Turn the shadows off any time to see the whole surface.
Saturn, with its rings
The rings are drawn from NASA Cassini measurements of their structure: the C and B rings, the Cassini Division, the A ring and the Encke gap. Saturn's Sun lights them; the planet's shadow falls across them on the night side, and theirs falls on the planet.
The planets, day side and night side
Jupiter's bands, the rust of Mars, the clouds of Venus: each planet mapped from Solar System Scope's textures, framed to show its day and its night, by the same engine that draws the globe.
The Moon, computed
The Moon view is tonight's Moon, computed: its phase, libration and size for this hour, drawn north up, from the same Moon model as our Lunaria desk display. It rocks and nods with its monthly libration, the dark side glows with earthshine near new Moon, and the disc grows toward perigee. Set Moon month to play a whole month in ten minutes or in fifty seconds.
Tonight's Moon, or any hour
A Moon keepsake holds the view on an hour that matters, from 1900 to 2099: that hour's phase, libration and size, kept on the watch.
The blood Moon, on cue
Planetaria computes the coming solar and lunar eclipses on the watch and, during a lunar eclipse, draws the Moon turning copper as it slides into Earth's shadow: the light of every sunset on Earth at once.
Tonight, at a glance
Swipe up from a world for the cards. Tonight leads with the night's highlight: a coming eclipse, a meteor shower's peak, a supermoon, a visible ISS pass and more. Sky now shows the bright planets that are up, the Moon and the next ISS pass overhead. Tide gives the next high and low on U.S. coasts.
The sky, watched for you
The same highlight leads the Planetaria Sky tile and the Tonight (sky highlight) complication. Optional alerts, off until you turn them on and worked out on the watch: an ISS pass shortly before it is visible, with a dark sky and a sunlit station; NOAA's aurora forecast near you reaching a 35% chance after dark; a week before each solar or lunar eclipse anywhere on Earth; a meteor shower's peak night.
The Sun, sunspots and all
When the watch is online, the Sun view is a recent NASA SDO photograph of the photosphere, refreshed up to once an hour. The night-sky view maps the constellations and planets above you, and marks an active meteor shower's radiant while it is up.
Two tiles. The Planetaria tile: the Earth or a world you choose, the Moon's phase, the next sunrise or sunset. The Planetaria Sky tile: tonight's highlight, the next ISS pass overhead, the bright planets up, the Moon.
Nine complications for watch faces that support them: Tonight (sky highlight), Moon Phase, Sunrise / Sunset, Moonrise / Moonset, Golden Hour, Next Tide, ISS Pass, Aurora Chance and Next Eclipse. Next Tide covers U.S. coasts; Next Eclipse counts eclipses anywhere on Earth.
Yours to set up
The tide, at a glance
Swipe up from a world to the cards, then sideways to Tide: the nearest of 35 NOAA stations on U.S. coasts, with the height now, rising or falling, the curve of the day, and the next high and low.
Tonight's constellations
About 1,000 stars, the constellations, the Moon and the planets over your place, turning with the Earth, with an active meteor shower's radiant marked while it is above the horizon. Double-tap to zoom in and read the constellations' names.
The desk globe's options came along: time-lapse and Moon month, a replay of the last 48 hours with the ISS's path and each earthquake as it struck, globe centre on the day/night line or on your home, view tilt, Earth and planet shadows, layers for clouds, city lights, the ISS, earthquakes and aurora, brightness, dim at night, and local weather from MET Norway in °C or °F. Turn on Clock to keep the Wear OS time along the top of every view.
On your phone
The companion app for Android phones works on its own. Tides, weather, aurora, earthquakes, alerts, tiles and complications are on the watch.
Every world, full screen
The Earth, with the date of its NASA cloud mosaic, and the Moon now. Then the Earth, the Moon, the Sun and each planet full screen: turn, zoom, slide time and tap a point, with named places on the Earth, the Moon and Mars.
Tonight where you are
Tonight hour by hour, a sky chart you can turn and zoom, and the coming full Moons, meteor showers and eclipses. Your approximate location is used on the phone and never sent.
Four widgets
On your home screen: "Planetaria Tonight", "The Earth, computed", "The Moon tonight" and "A world", drawn on the phone from what the app keeps.
Built like an instrument
On-device astronomy
The Sun, Moon and planets are computed on the watch and the phone and tested against NASA JPL Horizons: the point beneath the Sun to within two hundredths of a degree.
Offline-first
Lose the network and the astronomy keeps running: globe, terminator, Moon, planets, night sky. Downloaded layers keep their last good data and catch up when you reconnect.
Battery discipline
At normal speed the globe redraws on a slow tick and dims at once in ambient mode. Time-lapse runs only when you choose it, and downloads arrive on a gentle schedule.
App specifications
| Platform | Wear OS 3 or newer, standalone. Companion app for Android 8.0 or newer phones, which works on its own. Tested on a Galaxy Watch 7 |
| Rendering | Per-pixel spherical renderer ported from the desk globe's firmware: NASA's VIIRS daily mosaic (a day or more old), city lights, each world's computed terminator, Saturn's rings from Cassini data; time-lapse at 25 frames a second |
| Views | Side to side, in solar-system order: the Earth (clouds, quakes, ISS, aurora) · the Moon · Mars to Neptune · the night sky · the Sun (NASA SDO photograph) · Mercury and Venus. Swipe up: the cards (Tonight, Sky now, Tide). Swipe down: Settings and About |
| Sky events | Eclipses computed and drawn on the watch · aurora forecast (NOAA OVATION) · meteor showers · the Tonight highlight · optional ISS, aurora, eclipse and meteor alerts, off until you turn them on |
| Tiles & complications | Planetaria tile · Planetaria Sky tile · nine complications for watch faces that support them: Tonight (sky highlight), Moon Phase, Sunrise / Sunset, Moonrise / Moonset, Golden Hour, Next Tide, ISS Pass, Aurora Chance, Next Eclipse. Next Tide covers U.S. coasts; Next Eclipse counts eclipses anywhere on Earth |
| Tides & weather | Tides for U.S. coasts, from the nearest of 35 NOAA stations · local weather from MET Norway, in °C or °F |
| Phone companion | The Earth, the Moon, the Sun and each planet full screen, with named places on the Earth, the Moon and Mars · Tonight hour by hour · a sky chart · the coming full Moons, meteor showers and eclipses · four home-screen widgets: "Planetaria Tonight", "The Earth, computed", "The Moon tonight" and "A world" |
| Accuracy | Sun, Moon and planet positions and lighting tested against NASA JPL Horizons; Moon model shared with the Lunaria desk display |
| Data sources | MET Norway weather (CC BY 4.0) · NASA VIIRS clouds via Worldview and SDO Sun images · NOAA tides and aurora forecast · USGS earthquakes · ISS orbit from CelesTrak and wheretheiss.at · Yale Bright Star Catalogue · d3-celestial constellations (BSD-3) · Solar System Scope maps (CC BY 4.0) · Cassini UVIS rings (NASA PDS) · place names from the IAU via the USGS Gazetteer, and NASA's NSSDCA |
| Built to last | The downloaded layers stand on public data services, including the ISS orbit from CelesTrak and wheretheiss.at, independently run sources we name openly. The app is engineered for that dependency, in three steps. Fresh: every feed can come two ways, through Planetaria's data service or straight from its provider with no server of ours in between. Paused: the last good data is kept. Ended: should a source ever go away for good, that layer keeps its last good data, the ISS marker steps aside rather than drift, the aurora and ISS alerts and complications go quiet rather than speak from old data, and everything around it is untouched. The astronomy itself (globe, Moon, Sun, planets, eclipses, meteor showers, the night sky) is computed on the watch and is yours for as long as the watch runs. |
| Settings | Motion: time-lapse, the last 48 hours, Moon month · globe centre · view tilt · Earth and planet shadows · layer switches · clock · brightness · dim at night · °C/°F · Moon keepsake · location |
| Privacy | No account, no ads, no analytics. Location is optional (without it, a default place: Los Angeles) and approximate. The watch rounds it to about 10 km and sends it only to fetch your weather and tides: to Planetaria's data service, which asks MET Norway for that area's forecast, or straight to MET Norway when the service can't be reached. The phone app never sends its location. Privacy policy |
| Price | $2.99, a one-time purchase on Google Play. No subscription and no in-app purchases |