Open the Night tab. +Frames ranks the deep-sky catalog for tonight using your active setup's field of view, your location, your horizon profile, the Moon and your filters, and shows a Top 50 graded A to E.
Yes. A frame on the atlas shows what your active setup captures, including reducer or Barlow, camera rotation and mosaics. A telescope with an eyepiece shows a circle instead.
Yes. +Frames Lite is free: the atlas, tonight's best 5 targets, one setup, one location, one project and the Buddy with a monthly quota. Premium unlocks everything: USD 3.99 per month or 29.99 per year through the App Store.
No. +Frames runs on iPhone and iPad (iOS 18 or newer). Your data stays on your devices and in your private iCloud; there is no account.
Yes. iPhone, iPad and iPhone Duo with iOS 18 or later.
Yes. From the Framing card or a project: an ASIAIR plan as text and a NINA file. Star observations export as OpenAstronomyLog 2.1.
Yes. A telescope with an eyepiece gives a circle on the atlas, star lists cover double stars (with a split verdict for your aperture), variable and carbon stars, and star projects keep an observing log with seeing, limiting magnitude and notes.
Telescopius is free and web-based. It filters targets by size, altitude and Moon distance and simulates framing. +Frames scores each target for your gear, horizon, Moon and filters, has its own sky atlas with photos, tracks projects per filter, and runs offline on iPhone and iPad. Full table: compare.
Stellarium is a sky simulation. It shows your eyepiece or camera field of view but does not rank targets for your gear and night and does not track projects. Both show Gaia stars to magnitude 21 or deeper.
SkySafari is a planetarium with telescope control. It filters objects by visibility, +Frames ranks them for your gear. SkySafari controls your mount, +Frames does not.
PhotoPills plans Sun, Moon and Milky Way positions over a landscape. +Frames plans deep-sky targets through a telescope. They do different things.
The Astro Buddy is the AI assistant in the app. It answers questions about objects, exposure and your night, and it operates the app: "Make M 33 a project", "I did 20 subs of Ha on M 45 last night", "I have a ZWO ASI2600MC Air", "Open the Framing card", "Plan the night of 15 October", "Switch to Paros", "Export the ASIAIR plan for my M 45 project". It never deletes anything and all numbers about your sky come from the app. Examples: compare.
An iOS app for planning deep-sky astrophotography and visual observing. Sky atlas with 8,806 deep-sky objects and stars to mag 21, a nightly ranking for your own gear, location and sky, the field of view of your camera or eyepiece, projects with subs and nights, an AR finder, plate solving for your own photos and the Astro Buddy for questions, targets and gear.
An iPhone, iPad or iPhone Duo with iOS 18 or newer. No account needed. Your data stays on the device and in your private iCloud.
On the App Store. Download it, it starts as Lite. Questions and feedback: support@plus-frames.com or Send feedback in the app (chat, gear icon).
Lite is free. Premium is one subscription for the whole app, USD 3.99 per month or USD 29.99 per year. Prices in your region follow Apple's pricing and are shown before you confirm. Billing, renewal and cancellation run through your Apple Account, see the Terms of Use.
In the Chat tab. An exact object name or a set of coordinates flies the atlas directly, without AI. Everything else goes to the Astro Buddy.
In the Location tab: open the active location, hold a bar briefly and drag. Eight directions, 0 to 90°. Save stores it, the atlas and the ranking use it.
Yes, a monthly quota per device. Normal use does not reach it. Gear lookups answered from the app's own equipment catalog are instant and free.
Yes. Equipment data, explanations and other AI answers can be inaccurate or incomplete. Check critical specifications before you rely on them.
Through nova.astrometry.net with your own free API key, asked once in the chat. Solving usually takes well under a minute, at busy times a few minutes. The solved photo appears in the atlas at its position, size and rotation.
Atlas, gear, projects, calendar and ranking work offline. Internet is needed for the Astro Buddy, plate solving, the weather on the location cards, stars fainter than mag 14 and the first download of object images.
English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese. The app follows the iOS language setting; the Astro Buddy answers in the app language.
See the Privacy Policy. In short: no account required, no tracking, no ads. AI requests go through our server without personal identifiers beyond what is technically required.
Send feedback in the app (chat, gear icon) or email support@plus-frames.com.