We are lucky in Arizona to have almost perfect skies for stargazing, even in the metro areas. But get outside of the Phoenix area and the skies are ablaze with stars and planets year round. Flagstaff is a designated dark area which offers an even better seat for stargazing.
One of the only apps I paid for is the Starwalk app for my iPhone and was the best $2.99 I spent. The app will show you stars, planets, satellites and even the international space station.
Both Dippers and Orion’s Belt are easy to spot because I remember them from elementary school but some of the others can be tricky. I also like to lean our heads back and find satellites as they trek across the sky. No matter where you are, you can point the phone to the sky and know what you’re looking at.
Raise it to the sky and it will outline the constellations for you. You can also point your phone toward the ground to see what star-gazers are looking at on the other side of the world.
The menu portion offers some fun things to see.
The calendar button will highlight sky events to see. For me today the calendar shows the space station passes and a Russian Satellite Iridium32.
Sky Live shows sunrise, sunset, moon phase and planets you can see.
Gallery is just that; a gallery of super cool pictures.
There are similar apps available for Andriod devices, check in the app store for one that looks good for you.