epicycle.Now Live on App Store (iOS 17+) · Android 10+ In Development
Epicycle is a quiet, free educational astronomy companion created to reconnect us with the living night sky. No advertisements, no subscriptions, and not a single line of tracking code. Just clear constellations, interactive 3D star mapping, bite-sized lessons, and the timeless wonder of stargazing. Because nobody owns the sky.
A WINDOW TO THE COSMOS · 100% PRIVATEToo many modern apps have become billboards: asking for monthly subscriptions to look at the Moon, flashing banner ads while your night vision adjusts, or harvesting your location. We believe in software that respects your quiet attention:
When you step away from artificial lights into the dark, your eyes take twenty minutes to dilate and adapt. Epicycle will never push notifications, pop up paywalls, or disturb your stillness. It simply opens and lets you gaze upward.
Polynesian navigators crossed thousands of miles of open Pacific reading the rising points of stars. Mesopotamian shepherds tracked seasons by Taurus and Scorpius. Epicycle preserves these ancestral narratives so you can feel the living thread connecting us all.
Your phone's sensors are used solely to orient constellation lines in real time on your device. Epicycle collects zero personal data, maintains no remote user accounts, and includes zero third-party marketing trackers.
For hundreds of thousands of years, the night sky was humanity's compass, calendar, and storytelling circle. In a world illuminated by artificial screens, stargazing is an invitation to slow down and reconnect with the natural rhythms of Earth.
Human vision adapts to faint starlight through rhodopsin production in your retinas. Epicycle is built with deep-red dark adaptation modes and gentle low-lumen palettes so you can check a constellation without losing your night vision.
Follow how the stars shift across the months as Earth traces its 365-day journey around the Sun. Watch the Pleiades announce winter frosts and the Summer Triangle herald warm summer breezes.
Learn how to locate true north using Polaris in Ursa Minor, or find the celestial south pole using the Southern Cross and Pointers. Understand how ancient voyagers navigated oceans without instruments.
Looking into deep space is an exercise in gentle perspective. Seeing starlight that left before humans learned to walk reminds us of the delicate, precious wonder of our small blue planet.
Designed for students, families, classrooms, and curious explorers of all ages. No complex math or confusing jargon—just clear, intuitive insights into how our universe works.
From nebular stellar nurseries and hydrogen-burning main sequence stars to red supergiants, planetary nebulae, and neutron stars.
Understand why planets appear to drift and loop against background stars, and how Kepler's laws govern their movement.
Discover the simple geometry behind new moons, waxing crescents, and solar or lunar eclipses visible from Earth.
Reinforce learning with misconception-focused challenges across Explorer (ages 6–9) and Astronomer (ages 10+) tiers, featuring live Moon phases and deep-links directly into object cards.
Explore actual high-resolution screens from Epicycle on iOS and Android. Clean, tactile, and completely functional without an internet connection.
Effortlessly toggle between an interactive celestial star map and live camera mode. Features real-time planetary positions, animated viewing times, and precision ground-truth alignment controls.
Rewritten with Explorer (ages 6–9) and Astronomer (ages 10+) tiers. Tests deep understanding with misconception choices, live Moon phases, and deep links into object cards.
Written by thoughtful educators, not synthetic text generators. Explore bite-sized lessons on planetary physics, stellar lifecycles, and lunar phases, accompanied by multicultural sky traditions.
Inspect all 88 officially recognized IAU constellation figures. Explore ancestral sky lore from Babylonian (MUL.APIN), Arabic (al-Ṣūfī), Chinese (28 lodges), Vedic nakṣatras, and Indigenous traditions.
Rotate the 3D celestial sphere below to inspect anchor stars, deep-sky nebulae, and constellation figures. Every star you select reveals the exact moment its light set out across the cosmos—showing what was happening on Earth when that journey began.
In loving memory of Gül Ateş. Her warmth, strength, and grace continue to illuminate our path every time we look up into the night.
In astronomy, to look outward is always to look into the past.
The light reaching our eyes tonight from distant stars began its journey years, centuries, or millennia ago. It traveled through boundless silence, unchanging, to touch our eyes in this fleeting moment.
Epicycle was created as a quiet, completely free window to the cosmos and is dedicated in loving memory to Gül Ateş, who passed away from stomach cancer in 2014. Her kindness, courage, and radiant warmth remain alive in our hearts and inspired the creation of this free gift to the world.
Gemini, the Twins, was Gül's zodiac sign. In her memory, Gemini is permanently drawn throughout Epicycle in soft rose pink (#FFB8CC) and marked with a glowing heart emblem—on the Sky Map, in Live Sky AR view, and on its dedicated constellation card.
Look for its two bright twin stars, Castor and Pollux, high on winter and early spring evenings. Wherever you wander in this world, we all look up under the same stars.
If you find a moment of peace, wonder, or connection using this app, please consider supporting No Stomach For Cancer, a remarkable independent nonprofit advancing stomach cancer research and supporting affected families worldwide.
Support stomach cancer research (opens No Stomach For Cancer in a new tab)100% of donations go directly to No Stomach For Cancer (501(c)(3) nonprofit). FlowDevs LLC receives no compensation, commission, or processing fees.Start with a question. See where the stars take you.
Epicycle is now live on the Apple App Store for iOS 17+ (iPhone & iPad), with the Android release in active development. Completely free, with zero advertisements, zero tracking, and zero subscriptions.