Compass

What it does

Hold up your phone and see which way you are facing, with the current sun and moon directions and the directions of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, and the Milky Way's rise and set marked on a compass dial.

What you need

• An iPhone or iPad. Compass is not available on the web.
• Location permission, so it can work out the directions for where you are standing right now. It always uses your device's current position, not a saved location.
• Once your position is found, the directions are calculated on the device. Nothing is fetched online.

How to use it

1. Allow location access when asked. If it is denied, the screen tells you to enable it in your device Settings.
2. Under Date, leave today selected or pick another date to see that day's directions. Tap Now beside the date to go back to today.
3. Hold the phone and turn. The dial rotates under a fixed needle at the top.

Reading the results

• The large number is your live heading in degrees (000 to 359, where 0 is north), with the compass point beside it, for example NNE. When you point close to one of the events, or at the sun or moon, it changes to FACING plus that name, for example FACING SUNRISE. If the sun or moon you are pointed at is below the horizon, it says BELOW HORIZON after the name.
• Colored marks on the dial show where each event happens.
• The Directions card starts with Sun Now and Moon Now, under a small Now label: each body's direction in degrees and its altitude above the horizon right now. A row is dimmed when that body is below the horizon. The row you are facing is highlighted.
• Then, under Today or the picked date, it lists Sunrise, Sunset, Moonrise, Moonset, Milky Way Rise, and Milky Way Set, each with its direction in degrees and its clock time. A dash means that event does not happen on that date at your position. The Milky Way rows are left out on dates when the core never rises or never sets there.

Tips

• The date only changes the event marks. The heading, Sun Now, and Moon Now always reflect the current moment.
• If the screen says compass accuracy is low, move away from magnets (a magnetic case, keyboard, or Apple Pencil), then move your device in a figure 8.
• On iPad, the dial sits on the left with Date and Directions beside it.