Comprehensive: A screenshot of the Star Walk app.

Before you look to the skies it pays to glance at your smartphone.

The night sky is so vast it is easy for budding astronomers to become overwhelmed. An astronomy app on your smartphone is a great place to start, making it easier to dip your toe into the vast ocean that is the cosmos.

As the name suggests, Planets' primary goal is to help you find planets in the night sky. The moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn are visible from the suburbs through even a modest telescope or binoculars.

Better for beginners: A screenshot of the Planets app.

Planets offers an easy-to-read list of when the sun, moon and planets rise and set each day. To help you find them there are 2D maps to point you in the right direction and 3D maps that show the planets' positions in the sky against the constellations. The 3D map even moves as you turn around and lift your arms, so it's always displaying what is in front of you.

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Star Walk's maps also move as you turn around, but they offer a lot more detail - making it more daunting for beginners but more useful once you know your way around the night sky.

It includes extra information on stars, galaxies and nebulas, along with the real-time position of dwarf planets, comets, asteroids and man-made satellites.

Star Walk also makes it easier to plan your astronomical adventures in advance. You can check rise and set times in the future, fast-forward and rewind through the night and see extra details such as the phases of the moon. There is a calendar of events but it has a northern hemisphere bias, listing the summer solstice in June.

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Astronomy apps: Planets v Star Walk