Comparison

Stellar Tour vs Space Telescope App

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Stellar Tour

Explore the cosmos with an augmented reality stargazing app guided by an astrophysicist. Discover exoplanets, solar system bodies, and deep-sky objects with scientifically accurate narratives and detailed visuals.

Highlights
  • Augmented reality stargazing
  • Astrophysicist-guided tours
  • Detailed exoplanet information
  • High-resolution solar system visuals
  • Exploration of galaxies and nebulae
  • Interactive 3D planet and moon models
Features
Read full description

Stellar Tour is the only AR stargazing app written by an astrophysicist. Point your phone at the night sky and get a guided tour of everything up there: 1.7 billion real stars, every planet and major moon, eclipses, meteor showers, 13,000 deep-sky objects, and a course in astronomy that starts with the sky over your head and ends at the edge of the universe. Astrophysicist Dr. Aaron Day wrote every word. Instead of the standard flood of random facts, Stellar Tour tells the scientifically accurate story of each world: what it is like on the ground, in the seas, or floating through the clouds. THE NIGHT SKY, FOR REAL • 1.7 billion stars from ESA's Gaia survey, each in its true position. Pinch to zoom from your backyard to the galactic core. • The Milky Way as it actually looks, drawn from every star Gaia measured, with constellations, planets, and satellites overlaid on your live sky. • A sky that looks like the time it is: dawn, daylight, twilight, and full dark, with a real atmosphere and hazy ridges on the horizon. The Moon shows its earthshine, and Earth's night side its city lights. • Night Vision mode keeps your eyes dark-adapted with a pure red display. LEARN THE SKY • Sixteen short lessons, from the sky over your head to the edge of the universe. Every stop is a live visit: the lesson flies you to the star, steps the clock, or opens the tool it is talking about. The first three lessons are free. • Three reference books inside the app, How We Know, The Sky, and The Whole Story, with a glossary and dozens of labeled diagrams. SEVEN SKIES • See the stars the way Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, India, and the Arabian desert saw them: their star figures and folk names drawn on your sky, their stories on each star's page, and their lunar festivals on the calendar. PLAN YOUR NIGHT • Sky Calendar: every eclipse, meteor shower, conjunction, and full moon, filtered by type. The week ahead is free; the full year comes with the expansion. • Night Planner: the best targets for your sky tonight, hour by hour. Sky Forecast: the cloud cover over your spot, hour by hour. • Reminders that fire only when something is worth stepping outside for, including ISS and Tiangong passes with a live countdown. • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets for rise and set times and the next sky event. Ask Siri what is visible tonight. ECLIPSE EXPLORER Simulate any solar or lunar eclipse from any place on Earth: local timings, a disc animation of the Moon crossing the Sun, and a live countdown. The next solar eclipse at your own location is free: its times, what you will see there, and a reminder. GO DEEPER • Telescope Catalog: 13,000 NGC, IC, and Messier objects, searchable and shown on your sky. • Exoplanets: nearly every known world, in its actual position on the sky, with sizes, temperatures, and orbits. • The Solar System up close: planets and major moons in NASA probe imagery, in visible light, ultraviolet, infrared, and radar. Rotate them to any angle. • Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope pictures, on the pages of the objects they show. FOR EVERYONE • Kid Mode rewrites the whole tour for explorers aged five to seven. • Birthday Sky: a shareable card of the sky on the night you were born. • Smart search: ask for exactly what you want. • Fifteen languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Vietnamese, and Icelandic. Dates in your own calendar. • VoiceOver and Dynamic Type throughout. ONE PURCHASE, NO SUBSCRIPTION Cosmic Expansion adds the 1.7 billion stars, black holes up close, the exoplanets, the galaxies, the eclipses, the planner, the catalog, and the whole course in a single purchase that is yours forever. Take the Stellar Tour!

About

Space Telescope App

Explore the universe with real-time updates and stunning visuals from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Engage with expert insights, join community discussions, and test your knowledge with interactive quizzes. Discover distant galaxies and unlock the secrets of the early universe.

Highlights
  • Live mission updates
  • Breathtaking image gallery
  • Expert Q&A with astronomers
  • Community discussions
  • Interactive space quizzes
  • 3D solar system explorer
  • Exclusive wallpapers
Features
Read full description

Space Telescope is an astronomy app for people who actually go outside and look up. See what the James Webb Space Telescope is observing right now. Decide whether tonight is worth staying out for. Catch the next visible ISS pass over your own location, and follow the rocket launches coming up. WHAT WEBB IS LOOKING AT, RIGHT NOW Webb's current target, science category, proposal, instruments and scheduled times, refreshed every five minutes while the view is open. Tap through to the proposal or the full observation schedule. A REAL PLAN FOR METEOR NIGHT Most meteor apps hand you a peak date. This one tells you what you will actually see. Set your location and how dark your sky is, and get an honest meteors-per-hour range, the best viewing window, where to look, how much the Moon will wash out, and what 30, 60 or 90 minutes outside is likely to be worth. Two alerts that matter: a heads-up the evening before, and a nudge when your window opens. Cloud cover is not included, so check the weather before you commit. THE ISS, OVER YOUR HOUSE Live position, altitude, velocity and orbit, plus crew, expeditions, dockings and visiting vehicles. Seven days of passes for your location with quality, direction, peak elevation and duration - set a 10-minute alert or drop the pass straight into your calendar. LAUNCH DAY Upcoming launches with live countdowns, status, provider, rocket, pad, launch window and webcast link. One tap for a reminder 15 minutes before liftoff. GALLERIES WORTH SCROLLING Imagery and mission guides for James Webb, Hubble, Chandra, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, Artemis, Mars and the ISS. Follow Roman's countdown, instruments and journey to L2. Pinch to zoom, save, share, like and comment. Turn on alerts only for the galleries you care about. PICTURE OF THE DAY NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, image or video, with the full expert explanation and an optional daily alert. AND WHEN YOU WANT MORE - Tonight Sky: sunrise, sunset, Moon phase, illumination and twilight - Space Weather: Kp index, solar wind, aurora probability and active alerts - Cosmic Calendar: meteor showers, eclipses and other sky events - Exoplanets: discovery method and year, distance, orbit, mass, radius, temperature, host star and habitable-zone marker - Community astrophotography: post your own shots with gear and conditions - Space wallpapers for your phone - Quizzes, points, levels and global leaderboards - Ask an Astronomer, and live chat rooms in 10 languages - Full interface in English and Spanish PREMIUM Space Telescope is free, with ads. Premium removes every ad, unlocks the premium wallpaper collection and adds a gold avatar ring. Choose a monthly or annual subscription, or pay once for lifetime access, which also grants 1,000,000 points and Diamond level straight away. Subscriptions are charged to your Apple Account and renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Manage or cancel in your Apple Account settings. Whether you follow Webb every day, plan a Perseids or Geminids watch, photograph the night sky, teach astronomy, or just want to know when the ISS will cross overhead, Space Telescope keeps the useful details in one place. Space Telescope is an independent astronomy app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA, ESA, STScI, SpaceX or any launch provider. Data and imagery are credited to their respective sources. Privacy policy: https://jameswebbtracker.com/privacy-policy Terms of use (Apple standard EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Stellar Tour4 screens
Space Telescope App4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Stellar Tour at 84% against Space Telescope App's 40%. Stellar Tour also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.0) and ads (none vs shown). Space Telescope App's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Stellar Tour sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and Space Telescope App sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Stellar Tour holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Stellar Tour has 1.7K ratings behind it against 30, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 84% of Stellar Tour's written reviews are positive against 40% of Space Telescope App's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Stellar Tour ships an update every 3 weeks, Space Telescope App every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Stellar Tour versus Space Telescope App: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStellar TourSpace Telescope App
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.7K ratings) — better4.0 (30 ratings)
Positive reviews83.5% of reviews — better40.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1.7K — better30
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 10 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size582 MB104 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAaron DayKAKHA GIORGASHVILI

Customer experience

Stellar Tour

All ratings1,699 ratings
Positive93.5%
Neutral3.7%
Negative2.8%
Written reviews91 reviews
Positive83.5%
Neutral5.5%
Negative11.0%

Space Telescope App

All ratings30 ratings
Positive73.3%
Neutral6.7%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews30 reviews
Positive40.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative50.0%

Bugs and requests

Stellar Tour

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Login screen freezes
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
  • Videos not playing offline as expected

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add support for viewing comets and other celestial events
  • Improve AR functionality and integration
  • Provide more detailed information on exoplanets
  • Introduce a dark mode option for better visibility at night

Space Telescope App

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Stellar Tour

One-time5
  • Remove Ads 1$2.99
  • Upgrade: Lessons & Sky Tools$3.99
  • Cosmic Expansion2 variants$9.99
Show 2 more
  • Remove Ads 2$9.99
  • Remove Ads 3$14.99
4 purchases

Space Telescope App

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Ad-Free Plan$4.991 Month
  • Ad-Free Annual Access$29.991 Year
One-time2
  • Premium$2.99
  • Buy 1M Points$99.99

Questions

Is Stellar Tour free?
Stellar Tour is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Space Telescope App free?
Space Telescope App is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Stellar Tour or Space Telescope App?
Stellar Tour is rated higher. Stellar Tour averages 4.7 out of 5 from 1.7K ratings, while Space Telescope App averages 4.0 from 30 ratings.
Do Stellar Tour or Space Telescope App have ads?
Space Telescope App shows ads; Stellar Tour does not.
Which is updated more often, Stellar Tour or Space Telescope App?
Stellar Tour ships an update every 3 weeks, and Space Telescope App every 10 days. Most recently, Stellar Tour was updated on October 24, 2026 and Space Telescope App on October 21, 2026.

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