Every feature,
explained.

Your six home spots — the app scores tonight for these first.

Settings → Favorite Locations (and onboarding)

Add up to six places. The first one leads your briefing and sets the app's accent color. Reorder or remove any time.

Tell the app what you shoot so it emphasizes the right cards.

Settings → Photo Styles (and onboarding)

Pick Milky Way, Moon, Aurora, Coastal, Sunrise & Sunset, or Landscapes. Your picks decide which cards appear; the first style drives the accent color.

A single 0–100 read on whether tonight is worth the drive.

Today tab → hero

Blends sky, weather, moon, and timing for your styles — higher means fewer compromises. Tap it for the full written report.

Your nightly report — verdict, score, and the reasons behind it.

Today tab

Refreshes when you open the app and on a steady rhythm while it's open. Tap the hero for the full written briefing.

Find good spots around wherever you are right now, while traveling.

Today tab → Scout Nearby

Tap it to search dark-sky, coast, and viewpoint spots near your current GPS — without changing your saved places. Each result has drive time and a detail card.

Every past briefing, kept honest.

Today tab → clock icon in the header

Tap the history icon to browse past reports. (Pro.)

What's worth shooting tonight, when exactly, and where to stand.

Sky tab → Night Sky Planner

Pick a night and browse 25+ targets; each gets a GO / MARGINAL / NO verdict with the reason. Tap a target for its altitude curve and framing advice. (Pro.)

When will the moon line up behind my landmark?

Sky tab → Night Sky Planner → Shot Alignment Finder

Point it at a compass bearing; it scans night by night and lists every alignment with rise/set and moon illumination.

Your clean, moon-free dark window for the galactic core.

Sky tab → Milky Way Core card

Shows the dark window, the core's peak altitude and bearing, and honest moon interference. Off-season it flips to winter targets (Orion, Andromeda).

The real sky over your location, tap to identify anything.

Sky tab → SKY TONIGHT on the core card

Drag the amber slider to scrub dusk→dawn. Switch DOME (whole sky) or HORIZON (drag to look around). Tap a star/planet to identify it.

Peak nights, shooting windows, and moon interference for your sky.

Sky tab → Meteor Showers

See the next shower's Photographic Opportunity Score, a 12-month timeline, and per-night windows scored for your location. (Pro.)

Find the darkest sky near you.

Sky tab → Darklight

A light-pollution map (Bortle/VIIRS) with the darkest spots starred. Free.

See the moon's path on your camera preview before it arrives.

Sky tab → Live View

Overlays tonight's moon path, rise/set markers, and your landmark on the camera. If headings look off, tap ALIGN and drag the sky onto reality to calibrate. The camera image never leaves your phone. (Pro.)

Live NOAA space weather turned into a go/no-go for your camera.

Aurora tab

Bz is the door (negative = energy in), Bt is the field strength, speed/density are the push, Kp is slow context, Hemi Power is the aurora's live wattage. Your location card gives a visibility %. (Pro.)

The full driver charts, time-shifted to what's hitting Earth now.

Aurora tab → DEEP DIVE button

Each driver plotted over recent hours with an Earth-now marker that accounts for satellite→Earth travel time.

Catch the sudden aurora burst that Kp misses.

Aurora tab → Substorm Mode

Walks the cycle QUIET → LOADING → ONSET WATCH → EXPANSION/LOOK UP → RECOVERY using the GOES magnetometer. When it says LOOK UP, shoot now. (Pro.)

Watch the solar wind hit Earth's field, live.

Aurora tab → the globe

Shows real-time compression, deflection, and polar funnels brightening as coupling strengthens — current conditions, not a loop.

How much color a sunrise/sunset will likely produce, hour by hour.

Emberlight tab (the flame)

A live heat map scores color potential across your region — bright cells are where the light lands. Tap any point for its breakdown; press & hold to score any spot. Switch sunset/sunrise with the controls. (Pro map; scores on Today are free.)

Every sunrise and sunset for three days, scored, for your spots.

Emberlight tab → Your spots, or Field Guide → Emberlight

Each saved location gets score chips and a 72-hour strip so you can pick the evening worth clearing your schedule for. (Pro; the single next-event score on Today is free.)

Tonight's odds of glowing surf — bioluminescence potential.

Today tab → Bio Blue card (coastal spots)

Tap the Bio Blue card for the score and the reasons (water temp, surf agitation, recent conditions). It appears for coastal locations. Higher = better odds the waves glow.

The odds of a rainbow, so you can be positioned for it.

Today tab → Arclight card

Scores rainbow likelihood from sun angle and shower timing. Higher means keep the sun at your back and watch the opposite sky.

The full tide curve with king-tide and negative-tide flags.

Today tab → Tides card (coastal spots)

Shows the curve, next highs/lows, and water temp. King-tide and dangerous negative-tide windows are flagged for safety and composition.

An animated weather map built for astrophotographers.

Today tab → Sky Cover (and its own view)

Scrub layers hour by hour: CLOUDS, CLARITY (transparency incl. smoke), FOG, RADAR, lightning STRIKES, WIND, and SMOKE. Tap the chips to switch layers; drag the timeline. (Pro.)

Live strikes on the map, aged over the last hour.

Sky Cover → STRIKES chip

Shows real strikes color-aged over 60 minutes. Turn on Lightning Alerts to get pushed when strikes land within your radius (up to 50 mi). Not a safety warning system — always follow official guidance. (Pro.)

Wildfire smoke forecast, so haze doesn't wreck the shot.

Sky Cover → SMOKE chip

NOAA HRRR-Smoke 3 km forecast — clean air stays transparent, plumes render in the spectral ramp. Scrub the timeline to see it drift. (Pro; a Sky Cover layer.)

Every alert you've received, explained, in one place.

Today tab → Signals row (top)

When Shutter Scout sends an alert, a receipt lands here. Tap the row to read recent alerts; tapping one jumps to the feature that raised it. Hidden until your first alert.

Get pushed when the sky is worth going out for.

Settings → Alerts

Turn on aurora/substorm alerts; delivered when conditions cross a threshold for your location. (Pro.)

A heads-up before a high-scoring sunrise/sunset at your spots.

Settings → Alerts

Turn on Emberlight Alerts; you're notified with enough lead time to drive to the window. (Pro.)

A time-sensitive push when strikes land near you.

Settings → Alerts → Lightning (or the Sky Cover deck)

Set a radius (10/25/50 mi); alerts fire when strikes land within it, even with the app closed. Planning notifications, not a safety system. (Pro.)

A reminder before a shower's best night for your sky.

Settings → Alerts → Meteor showers

Turn it on; you're notified ~48 h before a well-scored peak window at your location. (Pro.)

An on-device photography companion that knows tonight's briefing.

Today tab → chat bubble in the header

Tap the chat icon to ask about tonight's plan, gear, technique, or how a feature works. Runs entirely on your phone, offline.

Protect your night vision — flood the screen red, app-wide.

Today tab → moon icon in the header (or Action button / Siri)

Tap the red-light button to enter; the slider dims the whole screen for true darkness. Great for reading the app in the field without ruining your eyes.

A red-light cockpit of live aurora numbers for the field.

Aurora tab → Chase Mode (or the widget / Siri)

A stripped-down, red-tinted dashboard of Bz/Bt/Kp and live routing to dark skies — built to read at 2 a.m. (Pro.)

Live Bz/Bt/Kp on your Home Screen; launch tools by voice.

Home Screen widgets + Siri Shortcuts

Add Shutter Scout widgets for live space-weather numbers; use Siri/App Shortcuts to open Red Light, Chase Mode, or ask an Aurora/Emberlight check.

Make the app yours — units, alert timing, app icon, red-light default.

Settings

Set metric/imperial, alert lead time, custom app icons, the AI voice, and the red-light default. The Field Manual (this help) also lives here.