Astronomy Alerts make sure you never miss a sky event — an eclipse, a supermoon, the change of seasons, or a night the aurora might be visible from your location. They require a Gold subscription (see Alerts & Notifications Overview for the sign-in and permission requirements).
Turning them on
Go to Settings → Notifications and switch on Astronomy Alerts (off by default). Tap the section's slider icon to open the detail screen, where a master toggle controls the whole category and each event type has its own toggle.
The five alert types
All five types are on when you enable the master toggle; switch off any you don't want:
| Alert type | What you're notified about |
|---|---|
| Lunar Eclipses | Upcoming lunar eclipses visible from your location |
| Solar Eclipses | Upcoming solar eclipses |
| Supermoons | Full moons at their closest, biggest approach |
| Solstices & Equinoxes | The astronomical start of each season |
| Aurora Forecast | Nights when aurora activity may be visible from your location |
When alerts arrive
- Celestial events (eclipses, supermoons, solstices & equinoxes) arrive 18 hours before the event by default, giving you time to plan. You can change this per event type to 24 hours, 18 hours, 12 hours, 6 hours, 3 hours, or 1 hour before, or at the event time.
- Aurora Forecast alerts arrive 60 minutes after sunset by default — once it's dark enough to look up.
To adjust the timing (or an aurora visibility threshold), open the matching alert under Settings → Notifications → Custom Notifications — each astronomy alert also appears there as an editable notification. See Custom & Threshold Alerts.
Tip: Gold subscribers can also watch the aurora on the map — choose the Aurora Forecast radar layer on the radar screen. And for colorful skies of the everyday kind, see Sunrise & Sunset Quality.