Bye Astro Planner, hello Skywarden!

If you’ve been following my posts here, you know that I’m a bit obsessed with optimizing the few clear nights we actually get. A few days ago, I shared a "little tool" I’d hacked together to help me stop scrolling through catalogs and start shooting.

Since then, that weekend project has basically taken over my life - in the best way possible. I’ve spent countless late nights (the cloudy ones!) refining the logic, and today I’m finally ready to show you what it’s become.

A New Identity: Skywarden

Initially, I simply called my little app "Astro Planner" because that's literally what it did - helped me plan my astrophotography sessions. It was a descriptive name, not a deliberate branding exercise. However, there's a well-established and fantastic desktop application called AstroPlanner which has been around for years. To avoid confusion and give my project its own unique identity as it grew, a rebrand was essential.

So, I'm excited to announce the project now has a proper name: Skywarden. It reflects its mission to help you "guard" your precious clear-sky time by making sure you're always pointed at the right target.

I’ve also moved it to its own permanent home: Skywarden.app.

Solving My Own Frustrations

The updates I’ve added recently come directly from things that annoyed me during my own sessions:

• The Weather Gamble: I used to check three different apps to see when the clouds would arrive. Now, Skywarden does that for me. It pulls the forecast and automatically trims the "usable time" for every object. If the clouds roll in at midnight, the rankings change instantly to show me what I can actually finish before then.

• Gear Safety: There’s nothing worse than the anxiety of leaving a rig out when the wind picks up. I added safety triggers that warn me about rain, snow, or high wind speeds, so I know exactly when it’s time to pack it in.

• Thinking Months Ahead: I kept missing the "prime" window for certain targets. I built the Planning Mode so I could look at a target - say, the Iris Nebula - and see exactly which week of the year offers the most darkness and the best moon phase. I even added a calendar export because if it’s not in my digital calendar, I’ll probably forget it.

• The "What's That?" Factor: Sometimes you have a specific target in mind. The new Object Search lets me jump straight to any of the 7.000+ objects in the database to see how it fits my specific sensor and focal length.

For Every Kind of Rig

I also realized that not everyone is lugging around a heavy EQ mount. With the rise of Smart Telescopes (like the Seestar or Vespera), I wanted to make sure those users could plan their nights just as easily. I’ve added presets for these devices so you can get optimized recommendations with a single click.

Why I’m Doing This

At the end of the day, I built Skywarden because I want to spend less time behind a computer screen and more time under the stars. It’s been a massive learning curve, but seeing the tool evolve from a messy script into a full-fledged app has been incredibly rewarding.

I’d love for you to take it for a spin. It’s free to use, and I’m always looking for feedback from fellow hobbyists to make it even better.

Check it out here: Skywarden.app

Clear skies