NIGHTASTRO UPDATES

What's new

This journal groups visible NightAstro improvements by period and theme. Internal technical fixes are intentionally omitted.

October 2026Current period

Main improvements

Save a target as a favorite with one click (☆ / ★) from target cards or a target page.
Find them again in “My favorites”, above the list on the “Tonight” page, with their visibility for the current night.
Your favorites are stored only in this browser: they are not synchronized between your devices.

The home page now shows the two latest news posts in the selected language, with a “See older news” link.

Each target shows its current altitude above the horizon on a small dial: degrees, direction (8 points), trend (rising or descending) and status (too low, low, good, very high).
Altitude is computed in your browser from your location and updates every minute.
While the sky is not dark enough (Sun above −15°), the dial is greyed out and shows “Sky not dark enough”.
Available in “Tonight” and on target pages.

New option in the results: “NightAstro ranking” (default) or “Chronological order”. Each target shows “Visible now” or “Visible from 10:40 pm”. Sorting does not change the score.

When the analysis runs in the middle of the night, the best window can start right away. NightAstro tells you whether the window is already open or about to start.

September 2026

NightAstro now estimates the light pollution at your location (Bortle and SQM) using data from DarkSkySites to refine the suggested targets.

A new Tools section brings together the NightAstro planner, Seestar AutoStack and 3D-printable Seestar accessories.
The first 3D accessory is the mechanical sight for Seestar S50, with printing settings and a direct link to MakerWorld.
Newsletter signup is ready through MailPoet, with a dedicated AutoStack notification list.

Top 5 on the home page: tonight’s best targets during the day, the best-placed targets right now once night has fallen, and the next favourable night when the sky is cloudy.
A missing target can now be reported directly from search.
The Messier (110) and Caldwell (109) catalogues are now complete, with English names added.
Search is more flexible: spaces and hyphens are ignored (for example “M 31” and “IC5070”).

IC 5070, the Pelican Nebula, has been added with OpenNGC catalogue data and a freely reusable Wikimedia Commons image with source and licence credit.

The catalogue adds 18 carefully checked targets, including California, Pacman, Tadpoles, Flame, Horsehead, Cone, Medusa and the Cassiopeia Shrimp.
Flame (Sh2-277 / NGC 2024) and Horsehead (IC 434 / B33) are separate targets. Sh2-273 also offers a Whole/Core framing for the Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster.

A one-tap night mode is now available from the top navigation. The preference is remembered in your browser.
The interface switches to black and muted dark red tones. Target images are hidden by default and can be revealed deliberately for 30 seconds; the home Moon graphic is also dimmed and red.
On first activation, NightAstro reminds you that lowering screen brightness remains the main way to protect night vision.

You can now combine several target types at once, for example galaxies + nebulae. “All” remains the default.
Planetary nebulae are now a separate category from other nebulae, so multi-selection is unambiguous.
A new quality filter can show all targets, only good-and-above targets (EOS ≥ 6.8/10), or only excellent targets (EOS ≥ 8.2/10). It only filters the results and never changes the EOS sky score.
For the selected instrument, NightAstro checks both the most favourable and least favourable target orientations, with an 8% safety margin for stacking and field rotation. Depending on the result, it shows the usual framing, “tight framing · depends on orientation”, or “exceeds the frame · mosaic recommended”.
You can now enter your Bortle class. NightAstro uses it to refine target order according to light-pollution sensitivity and the selected instrument’s filter, without changing the /10 sky-conditions rating.
Multiple preferred sky directions can be combined while still respecting your personal horizon.

The detected GPS position is confirmed immediately below the location button, with its accuracy, and a loading indicator is shown while geolocation is running.
Your manually selected city and instrument are remembered locally when you move between Tonight, plans and target pages.
The personal horizon can block sectors and set minimum and maximum altitudes; separate visibility passages are kept separate when an upper limit cuts a target near culmination.
You can choose an observing duration or one or two exact time slots in the same night; the NightAstro plan keeps the gap between them free and distributes targets only inside the selected periods.

Dedicated FR/EN guide pages are available for Seestar S50, Seestar S30 Pro, DWARF 3 and Celestron Origin, with direct links to Tonight and the matching instrument pre-selected.
NightAstro can be installed on the home screen as a lightweight web app on compatible devices; no offline weather cache is used.
The presentation video is directly accessible from the home page.

A small banner is shown only for changes that are genuinely visible or useful to users. Technical releases do not trigger a new banner.