Know The Stars Above You With SkyMap Free For Windows 8

SkyMap Free is a free Windows 8 app that allows you to view the information about the stars above you by pointing your device upwards to the sky. When you launch the app, the app will first trace your location via your IP address, and then you will see the appropriate stars above you. Before we get into the review of this app, you should know that your device should be equipped with a gyroscope, accelerometer, and motion sensors to make full use of this app. You can also choose to click and scroll through the map, but once you select the Point To Sky option from the control bar at the bottom of the screen, you will be able to simply point your device at the sky and know the information about what lies above you.

SkyMap Free is available for free from the Windows App Store.

SkyMap Free App Icon

Features of SkyMap Free for Windows 8…

When you install and launch SkyMap Free on your Windows 8 device, you will be presented with a screen which looks like the below screenshot.

SkyMap Free Main ScreenIn the above screen, you will be able to see the stars directly ahead of the location where your device is pointing. Do know that even if you can’t see any stars in front of you, this app will still show you some stars, and even if you point the device at the ground, you will be able to see some stars. This is not because of fault in the app, but because the Earth is surrounded by stars all around in a 360 degree orbit, and even if you can’t see the stars, this app will still be able to show you what stars lay in a straight perpendicular axis to where you are pointing. The control bar of the app provides you access to various options as you can see in the above screenshot.

Night Mode: Clicking on this button optimizes the colors of the app to suit your eye when you are viewing this app at night. The color intensity gets reduced by a lot when you switch to night mode, and your eyes will not get strained when you access the night mode.

SkyMap Free Night Mode

The night mode looks like the above screenshot.

Point to sky: Clicking on this button will allow the app to show you what stars lie ahead of you in direction where you point your device. The app shows you easily these details by making use of your gyroscope and accelerometer. Once you click on the button when it’s enabled, point to sky gets disabled and even when you move your device around, the app won’t change the skymap and make it stick to the last position which it displayed. This is useful when you want to look at a particular section of the sky in detail or you want to use your mouse to drag around the skymap.

More Stars: Shows more stars in the field of view.

SkyMap Free More Stars

Less Stars: Decreases the amount of stars in field of view to avoid distractions, while keeping the important stars still in sight.

SkyMap Free Less Stars

Settings: This allows you to configure the various accelerometer and motion settings. Overall, this concludes the how to on using this app on your Windows 8 or your Windows 8.1 device.

The verdict…

SkyMap Free is a great app in its entirety if you ask me. Right from motion guided stargazing to detailed view of constellations, this app has everything that it needs to have to be a star gazer’s delight. Even when no stars are in view, this app can technically be used because this doesn’t rely on daylight for star viewing, but relies on gyrometer, accelerometer and satellite positioning to show the stars directly above you or stars which aren’t in view.

Get SkyMap Free.