Cosmic Watch by Swiss developer Celestial Dynamics AG is a world clock that not only allows you to see the current time in various cities arrow the world, but also enables you to track the cosmic sky above through the use of various different tool and features throughout the app.

Originally I had planned to review Cosmic Watch much earlier than I had, but due to cloudy skies on the West Coast of Australia for almost a week I had to hold off until I was able to see the sky at night, and I am glad I did. The application itself gives you a huge array of information you can see such as the time in the current location and where to look for the moon and sun. The clock itself can be wound forward and back to view different times of the day.

You can change the field of view by clicking one of the four buttons on the left of the display. If you are lucky enough to have clear skies and live in an un-polluted area you can click the second button and use the app to spot the many different star formations in the sky. The third button assists you to see the many different constellations in the sky and the final button shows you where earth currently sits in comparison to the other planets in our solar system.

Most of the application’s menus are easy to use, I did have problems though with changing the default location that the game placed me in. Originally I was in Australia, but I recently moved to the UK, as such I wanted to move my location to my current location. At the first time of asking the application allowed me to change my location by searching for it in the search bar at the top right. I experienced a problem with this though as it wouldn’t drop a pin where I was. After restarting the app I was able to successfully move my pin location. You can make the new location default by setting it in the favorites section shown by the star on the applications home screen.

Through the applications setting you are able to view multiple other views to see things like the horizon, a detailed view of where the different planets are, the equatorial coordinates and my favorite option being able to see the various different gases in the sky. These options can all be turned on and off as you please. The only option in these setting that disappointed me was the cloud view which seemed to not show live cloud formation as when I moved the time forward and back all that happened was the clouds moved to the same rotation as the earth following the continents as they moved. I’m not sure the reason for this, it could be the data isn’t currently collected in the app, which I would feel would make it better if this view wasn’t an option.

If you have ever looked at the sky and wondered where the different planets and constellations are, but like me can’t be bothered researching them then Cosmic Watch is a great alternative. Cosmic Watch is available for $3.99 USD on the App Store and can also be purchased through the Google Play Store.