Apptisan #37 - Talking with Moonlitt’s Creator: Balancing Scientific Precision with Visual Poetry in Moon Tracking, How This Team Made Moon Tracking as Natural as Simply Looking
A year after sharing Sunlitt, Italian indie team Flipping Hues returns with Moonlitt—an app offering precise moon tracking and immersive visualization for photographers and astronomy enthusiasts.
Name: Moonlitt
Developer / Team: Flipping Hues
Platforms: iOS, iPadOS, macOS
Read this newsletter issue in Chinese (中文) .
Please describe your product.
Moonlitt is a precision moon tracking app designed to bring the moon’s movement, phases, and events into clear focus.
With immersive AR visualizations (coming soon) and seamless cross-device support, Moonlitt transforms how lunar phenomena are understood and planned.
Providing real-time positioning, detailed event tracking, and intuitive exploration tools, Moonlitt offers powerful insights for photography, astronomy, and celestial observation.
Was there a pivotal moment that inspired your product’s creation?
The idea for Moonlitt hit us while working on Sunlitt, our sun-tracking app. We realized that the moon was being totally left out of the spotlight (ironic, right?).
Existing moon apps either felt clunky, overly spiritual or drowned users in data. So, we thought, “Why not make tracking the moon feel as smooth and mesmerizing as watching it in the night sky?” And that’s when Moonlitt came to life: a moon companion that’s sleek, enjoyable, and ridiculously delightful.
What makes your product unique compared to others in the market?
Moonlitt isn’t just another moon app with charts and numbers, it’s a fully immersive experience that brings the mystic sky to life, with the moon’s phases and position shifting seamlessly in real time.
With a sleek, easy-to-read interface that adapts to the colors of day and night, Moonlitt makes lunar tracking fun and effortless. The moon path is already the center of Moonlitt experience and soon it will roll out even in Augmented Reality: a true game-changing tool especially for photographers planning their perfect lunar shots.
Creating accurate moon tracking requires precise calculations and data. How do you balance scientific accuracy with creating an intuitive, visually appealing experience that doesn’t overwhelm users?
We approach Moonlitt, and app design in general, with a clarity-first mindset. Accuracy is essential, but we prioritize making information digestible and visually intuitive rather than overwhelming users with raw numbers and complex charts.
For example, in the info sheet, instead of displaying dense tables of azimuths and altitudes, Moonlitt uses date and time pickers to show only the relevant moon coordinates for that moment. This keeps the experience intuitive and focused on what users actually need.
Our goal is to make Moonlitt feel effortless, giving users confidence in the information they receive while making their interaction as natural as observing the sky itself.
What’s your development toolkit and workflow for Moonlitt? Which software, frameworks, or productivity techniques have been game-changers for your team?
We keep our workflow fast, iterative, and deeply collaborative. We design quickly and develop even faster. Our process revolves around constant refinement and iteration, ensuring every interaction in Moonlitt is as clear, readable, and meaningful as possible.
Moonlitt is built with SwiftUI for a seamless, adaptive interface across devices, while SceneKit powers smooth 3D visualizations. For lunar calculations, we developed our own private framework, building on top of the well-known suite SunCalc. To ensure maximum accuracy, we applied our own tweaks, especially for the “Moon Terminator Angle” which determines the inclination of the Moon’s bright limb – seriously, check it out, it’s so precise!
Developing Moonlitt sometimes takes us outside during work hours to test it under the real sky. There’s something about building a tool so closely tied to nature that makes us appreciate it even more, keeping us inspired to create an experience that feels as natural as simply looking up.
How have you marketed your product, and what key lessons have you learned?
To build some hype, we launched Moonlitt for pre-order a month before release, sparking excitement and giving people a sneak peek at what was coming.
Of course, we also focused on App Store Optimization (ASO) to ensure moon lovers could easily find us, and partnerships with photographers and astronomy enthusiasts are in the works.
But one of our smartest moves? Tapping into our Sunlitt user base! We added a moonrise and moonset info section within Sunlitt, complete with a direct link to Moonlitt—and vice versa. This not only delivers useful insights to our users but also makes discovery seamless between our two celestial apps.
What has been some memorable feedback since your product’s release?
Moonlitt has just launched, and we can’t wait for user stories to roll in!
We’re so excited to see how photographers, stargazers, and moon enthusiasts will incorporate Moonlitt into their routines. Whether it’s capturing stunning full moon shots, planning a night under the stars, or something we haven’t even imagined yet, we know the moon sparks endless experiences.
Just like the sun, the moon shapes everyday life, and with so many ways to use Moonlitt, we’re excited to discover how it will become part of people’s journeys.
As both Sunlitt and Moonlitt focus on celestial tracking, what interesting patterns or behaviors have you observed in how users interact with these natural phenomena through your apps? How might these insights shape future updates?
One fascinating insight is how differently people engage with sun and moon tracking. Sunlitt is often used for professional purposes like filmmaking and architecture, but many also use it casually, like for planning golden hour walks or finding the perfect picnic spot.
With Moonlitt, we expect a similar range: from astrophotographers timing moon shots to those simply enjoying a more mindful connection with the night sky. We’re also curious to see unexpected uses, whether for meditation, lunar gardening, or even moon-phase love compatibility.
At this stage, understanding how people use Moonlitt is one of our priorities. The more we learn, the better we can shape it into a tool that naturally fits into their daily lives.
Are there any products out there that you feel deserve more recognition?
There are plenty of great tools out there that deserve more recognition, but two that immediately came to mind are Maccy and Dice Roller - Boring Dice.
Both are well-crafted, thoughtful tools that prioritize efficiency and user control, making real-life actions effortless and enjoyable.
Each excels at a single purpose. Maccy keeps clipboard history easily accessible without ever getting in the way, while Dice Roller delivers the experience of rolling dice just like the real thing, with beautiful visuals, smooth animations, and satisfying haptics.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you envision for the future.
We are Flipping Hues, a small but dedicated team passionate about blending technology with nature through beautifully crafted apps. Our team includes Nicolas Mariniello (Developer), Fabio Pizzano, and Raffaele Fulgente (Designers). We started our journey together at the Apple Developer Academy in Naples, where we built the alpha version of Sunlitt alongside three other ex-students.
Moonlitt is part of a broader vision to create intuitive, visually engaging tools that helps people better connect with nature’s rhythms. And this is just the beginning! More exciting innovations are ahead, so stay updated with us on LinkedIn or follow our journey on Instagram and Threads.
About Apptisan
Apptisan is a portmanteau of “application” and “artisan”, signifying “a weekly exploration into the world of apps and the passionate artisans who create them.” Each issue is a conversation with global creators, aiming to uncover and present intriguing products to a wider audience.
For those who prefer Chinese, you can subscribe via Quail. Creators interested in featuring their products are encouraged to submit them through our form, and we’ll be in touch promptly.
Supporter Status
If you enjoy Apptisan, consider showing your support in these ways: