LightCast · Clear Outside Alternative
LightCast

Looking for a Clear Outside Alternative?

Clear Outside tells you what the sky is doing. LightCast StarCast tells you whether it's worth going out — and sends a push notification when it is.

Try StarCast Free — iOS App Check Free on Web →

iOS app: $2.99/mo · 7-day free trial · Cancel anytime

What's different

A Score, Not a Data Dump

Clear Outside is a detailed forecast tool that surfaces cloud layers, seeing, transparency, and wind data in a grid format. It's genuinely useful if you know how to read and weight those variables yourself. LightCast takes a different approach: it weights the variables for you and produces a single 0–100 score that tells you whether a night is worth driving for, without requiring you to interpret a forecast grid every evening.

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StarCast: 0–100 Night Sky Score
Combines cloud cover, moon illumination, Bortle class, atmospheric transparency, and seeing into a single score. Above 70 is an excellent night. Below 40, conditions are poor. No grid to interpret — just a number and a breakdown of what's driving it.
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Push Notifications: The Key Difference
StarCast sends push alerts when a high-scoring night is forecast at your saved locations. You don't have to open the app every evening to check — it checks for you and notifies you when conditions are worth going for. This is the most practical difference from Clear Outside for photographers who can't monitor forecasts daily.
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Saved Dark Sky Locations
Save your go-to dark sky spots and LightCast monitors all of them simultaneously. When any saved location has a high-scoring night in the forecast, you get notified. No need to manually check each location individually before deciding whether the drive is worth it.
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Beyond Night Sky: Full Photography Suite
Clear Outside is built for astronomers and astrophotographers. LightCast covers the full range of photography conditions: golden hour, fog, drone flight, and cloud layer analysis alongside night sky scoring. One app for every type of shoot.
LightCast StarCast
Built for photographers specifically

Bortle Class, Moonrise, and Dark Window in One Place

StarCast shows Bortle class for any location, moonrise and moonset times, astronomical twilight end, and galactic core visibility window alongside the weather-based score. Everything a landscape astrophotographer needs to decide whether a night is worth the drive is in a single screen, not spread across multiple apps and forecast grids. Free on the web, push notifications in the iOS app.

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StarCast Push Alerts
Set your score threshold once and StarCast alerts you when conditions clear it at your saved dark sky locations. It checks every evening so you don't have to. The iOS app also includes GoldCast, FogCast, DroneCast, CloudCast, and TriCast.
Common Questions
What is a good Clear Outside alternative?
LightCast StarCast if you want push notifications and a single score rather than a detailed forecast grid. It scores night sky conditions from 0 to 100 and alerts you when conditions are worth going for. Free at lightcastsuite.com/starcast.
Does LightCast show seeing and transparency like Clear Outside?
Yes, both are factored into the StarCast score and shown in the breakdown. Rather than displaying raw seeing and transparency values for you to interpret, StarCast weights them into the overall score alongside cloud cover, moon, and Bortle class.
Does LightCast work outside the US?
Yes. LightCast uses global weather data and Bortle mapping. StarCast scores night sky conditions for any location worldwide — not limited to the US.
Is LightCast free?
The full web version is free at lightcastsuite.com/starcast. The iOS app is $2.99/month after a 7-day free trial and adds push notifications and saved locations.
What else does LightCast include beyond night sky?
GoldCast (golden hour scoring), FogCast (fog prediction), DroneCast (drone conditions), CloudCast (cloud layer analysis), and TriCast (camera calculators). All six tools in one app for $2.99/month.
LightCast
Get notified when the night sky is worth the drive.

0–100 night sky score · Bortle class · Moon phase · Dark window
Push notifications · Saved locations · Free on web

Download LightCast for iOS
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Check tonight's sky score free on web →

$2.99/mo after 7-day free trial · Cancel anytime in App Store