Celeris – Photo Planner
Stefan Engel Photo & Video iPhoneiPadiPod touchMacApple Watch
Celeris – Photo Planner is a free Photo & Video app for iPhone and iPad by Stefan Engel. Requires iOS 17.0. Updated October 21, 2026.
- Price
- Free
- on the App Store
- Size
- 85 MB
- Age 4+
- Updated
- Oct 21
- 2026 · v3.0.1
Screenshots
About Celeris – Photo Planner
Plan the photo. Find the moment. Celeris is visual photo planning built around the picture you want to take. Choose your standpoint, direction and focal length. In a simulated camera view, see how your subject lines up with the sun, moon or Milky Way. Then find when the picture becomes possible – and take the plan outside. Start free. Unlock the full version once, with no subscription. A 3D WORLD BUILT FOR PHOTOGRAPHY Terrain, water, forest, buildings, photographic landmarks, your own 3D objects, camera and sky share one view. Where terrain data is available, Celeris shows the real horizon. The sun and moon light the land, cast shadows and change its appearance through the day; lakes mirror the land, the trees and the stars. In the full version, woods stand as tree crowns that turn with the seasons, and buildings from official data light up at night with street lamps and windows. After dusk, cars drive the real roads. Haze, snow and fog help you picture the shot – as simulations, not weather forecasts. THE LANDMARK MATTERS Castles, towers, bridges and rock formations can stand in the sky as surveyed 3D models. The curated collection keeps growing; build your own objects from parts and place them on the terrain. Model, building and terrain coverage varies by location. PLANNED FROM ABOVE The drone view lifts your eye up to 1,000 m above the ground; the horizon and the rise and set times follow the height. In the flight planner, lay out a flight with waypoints or as an orbit, aim each waypoint in the 3D sky, play it back in the light of the chosen moment and export it as a video. Celeris does not fly a drone. FIND THE OPPORTUNITY Set the frame from 10 to 1200 mm or through your own lenses, in portrait or landscape, or make a panorama. Two controls find the next or previous time the sun, moon, Milky Way or a selected sky object becomes visible inside that exact frame. The real terrain skyline and the darkness needed to see it count too. A separate transit finder handles the ISS. The month calendar reveals promising nights. Event search finds sunrises, the moon, Milky Way, eclipses and more; Location Finder compares viewpoints. Save the place, time, direction and lens as a plan with a rendered picture – and later mark it completed with your own photo. Saved places get a photo, notes and tags. DAY INTO NIGHT The time scrubber carries the colours of twilight and the sun's and moon's arcs. The 3D sky shows planets, stars, the Milky Way, zodiacal light and the ISS. The full version shows light pollution in the sky and on the map and finds nearby dark places. Find worthwhile nights for meteor showers; the full version draws their radiants and time-compressed meteors. OUT IN THE FIELD AR lays the calculated sky over your camera view. Widgets show events and your next plan. On Apple Watch, see the night as a ring, your next plan, a compass to your standpoint, the moon and ISS, plus a sequence timer and watch-face complications. START FREE. UNLOCK ONCE. The map, 3D view, terrain, catalogue, your own models, lenses and plans are free to use, with planning limited to 48 hours around now. The full version opens every date, 3D buildings, 3D forest, the drone view, the flight planner and more with a one-time in-app purchase. No subscription. One purchase unlocks it on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Plans, places, drone flights, lenses and your own models can sync across your Apple devices through iCloud. No Celeris account, ads or trackers. English and German. The star catalogue uses HYG (Astronexus) and OpenNGC (Mattia Verga), both CC BY-SA 4.0; sources and licences are in the app.
What’s new
Version 3.0.1 · Updated October 21, 2026
Celeris 3.0.1 fixes a crash at launch for fresh installs with iCloud signed in. New in 3.0: Celeris 3.0: plan drone flights – and see a landscape with buildings, forest, roads and reflections. • Plan drone flights: lay out a flight on the map with waypoints or as an orbit, aim each waypoint in the 3D sky, play it back and export it as a video. The drone view lifts your eye up to 1,000 m above the ground. (Full version) • 3D buildings: houses, churches and towers from official building data stand on the land, roofs and all, with street lamps and lit windows at night. (Full version) • Forest in 3D: woods stand on the land as tree crowns; deciduous woods turn and drop their leaves with the date. (Full version) • Lakes and rivers mirror the land, trees, models, stars and the Milky Way, and grow calmer as night falls. • Snow above a snow line you set, and haze with the visibility you choose. • The real roads lie in the landscape; after dusk cars drive them with their lights on and draw light trails in star trails. Aircraft can cross the sky if you like. • My lenses: the zoom, the steppers and the sunstar follow your own lens. • Completing plans: mark a plan as completed, add your photo and compare plan and shot. • Places with a photo, notes and tags; plans carry the same tags. Also new: rise and set marks on the horizon, and sharper terrain where ridges and summits keep their shape. One-time in-app purchase for the full version, no subscription.
App privacy
The developer, Stefan Engel, reported these privacy practices to Apple.
Data Not Linked to You
The following data, which may be collected but is not linked to your identity, may be used for the following purposes:
- Purchases: Purchase History
Used for: App Functionality
Alternatives to Celeris – Photo Planner
Looking for apps like Celeris – Photo Planner? Here are 6 similar apps on the App Store. The highest rated is HDR Diagnostics (5.0/5), and all 6 are free to download.
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5.0
| App | Rating | Price | Last updated | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celeris – Photo Planner | – | Free | October 21, 2026 | |
| LensTrails | – | Free | Sep 16, 2026 | Compare |
| SolarTrack - Sun Moon Tracker | – | Free | Apr 6, 2026 | Compare |
| Solar Journal | – | Free | Sep 22, 2026 | Compare |
| Sunset Prediction | – | Free | Jun 10, 2026 | Compare |
| UMi Mount | – | Free | Mar 24, 2026 | Compare |
| HDR Diagnostics | 5.0 / 5 (6) | Free | Mar 2, 2026 | Compare |