Stellarium - a Free Night Sky Planner (Patreon)

Two days ago I sent you my tutorial post on "Seasonal Movements of the Milky Way Core," and mentioned three apps that you can purchase for planning (PhotoPills, Planit Pro and Sky Guide). Sky Guide is the least expensive of the three, and I used it to make the lead composite photo of the seasonal Milky Way movements.

Another piece of software I've used for about a decade now is Stellarium, and it's free (open source). You download the software to your desktop or laptop computer. There is also a mobile version you can buy, but for quick planning from home, I really enjoy using their free online Stellarium Web. Try it out. If you allow Stellarium-Web to know your location it will make the sky relevant to your exact location (you can change this to any place in the world). You can zoom/pan and advance the time/date (bottom right).

The screen capture at the top of this post is an evening twilight view showing the alignment of the three planets that are currently gracing our southern sky in the Northern Hemisphere.