Light Pollution Map vs SpaceWeatherLive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Light Pollution Map
Discover optimal locations for stargazing and astrophotography with a detailed light pollution map. Get real-time alerts for celestial events like meteor showers and auroras, track the ISS, and access daily astronomy photos. Enhance your night sky observations with comprehensive tools and information.
- Interactive light pollution map
- Aurora borealis live map and alerts
- Meteor shower and super moon alerts
- ISS tracker with live updates
- Moon phases and information
- Astronomy photo of the day
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Light Pollution Map allows you to easily locate dark sky locations where the sky will not be affected by light pollution, allowing the best observance, star gazing, and photography of the night sky! But it's not just a light pollution map. There's so much more, such as aurora borealis live viewing map, meteor shower alerts, super moon alerts, lunar eclipse alerts, moon phases and info, aurora and magnetic field information, international space station tracker, and a lot more! Light Pollution Map will help you master the night sky.. List of all features: • Highly accurate, customizable and interactive light pollution map to find dark sky viewing locations near you. • See live aurora borealis information such as KP value, magnetic field information, and more for the hardcore aurora chaser. • Live aurora borealis visibility map for northern and southern hemisphere, with additional timelapse options. • Aurora information widgets (today widget). • ISS Tracker with live updates about the international space station including the location, visibility, velocity, altitude, and more. • Night sky event calendar allows you to find dates for lunar eclipses, super moons, and meteor showers. • Live images of the Sun via NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. • Darkness countdown timer until the darkest period of night so you know when the night sky will be the darkest. Also let you know when it starts getting light outside. • Astronomy photo of the day directly from NASA! A new one every day to look at! • Local temperature indicator to know if you need to bring a sweater before you even step outside. • Local cloud coverage indicator to know if you will be able to see anything before you step outside. • Cloud cover overlay on the main map to find clear sky locations at night. • Settings to customize the app. • Moon information such as moon phase, moon rise, and moon set times, days of next full moon and new moon, etc. • Moon direction tool which allows you to find where the moon will be, at any time, any date, for any location. • Enable a horizon safe radius circle to avoid light pollution from nearby cities on the map. • Local Aurora Borealis (Northern/Southern Lights) alerts and push notifications. • Global Aurora Borealis Activity alerts and push notifications. • Meteor shower alerts and push notifications. • Super moon alerts and push notifications. • Lunar eclipse alerts and push notifications. • Save and load your favorite dark sky locations. • Navigate to your saved locations using the Apple Maps app. Some features above require an optional in-app purchase to upgrade to the pro version. Every purchase helps us to continue running and developing the app and is much appreciated. Note: Light Pollution Map loads data online. Internet connection or wifi is required, and we are not responsible for any data usage chargers from your provider. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
SpaceWeatherLive
Track aurora and solar activity in real-time with detailed forecasts and historical data. Receive customizable push notifications for significant space weather events. Explore an extensive archive and learn from expert reports.
- Aurora and solar activity tracking
- Real-time forecasts
- Push notifications for space weather events
- Dark mode for night use
- Detailed graphs and reports
- Extensive historical data archive
- Beginner-friendly explanations
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SpaceWeatherLive is the ultimate app for those who dream of seeing the northern lights or want to know everything about the activity on our Sun. With this app you will be able to see and understand how active the aurora is right now and if there might be a good chance to spot the northern or southern lights in the coming days. You will never miss an aurora display again with this app in your pocket no matter where you go! Beginner friendly - While the SpaceWeatherLive app is filled with all the space weather information you can think of both for beginning and advanced space weather enthusiasts, every item has a pop up with additional information to help you along if something is unclear. Learn more as you go along! Everything in one app - Switch between the auroral activity and solar activity modes with just one click! Dark mode - Preserve your night vision with our special dark mode! Ideal for aurora chasing out in the field! Push notifications - Free push notifications informing you of significant space weather events like solar flares, geomagnetic storms, earth-facing coronal holes and much more! You can turn any notification on or off so if you don't want to receive any notifications at all or are only interested in specific notifications: we got you covered! Modern graphs - All the data that you are interested in are represented in sleek, responsive graphs. Dials don't cut it when you are out in the field, you want to know how the data looks like in the past and right now. Our graphs provide all the information you need in the blink of an eye! News - Not only do we provide a ton of different automated alerts, we even have a dedicated team of space weather enthusiasts who write detailed hand written reports during high solar or auroral activity! Extensive help section - Are you a beginner and does our app look a bit daunting when you first open it? Fear not, we have a dedicated help section with tons of articles and a FAQ section. Give it a read and soon you will be able to make your very own aurora forecasts! Huge space weather archive - Ever looked back at your old aurora pictures and wonder what space weather was like on that specific date? We got you covered! Take a dive in our space weather archive that is filled to the brim with geomagnetic and solar data from the year 1996 until yesterday. Dig around and discover large sunspot regions, extreme geomagnetic storms and exciting data from the past! Free for all - Best of all... Our app is completely free of charge! We do have ads but those can be removed by purchasing a subscription which in turn supports us to keep our services online! PRICE AND TERMS: Although the app is free, it does contain advertising at the bottom of the screen which helps us to keep our services online. Don't want the ads? No problem, with a simple in-app purchase you can remove them! A monthly subscription is $0.99, half-yearly subscription $5.49 and yearly subscription $9.99. These prices apply to United States residents. Prices may vary in other countries respecting your local currency exchange rate. Your subscription will be charged to your iTunes account. At the end of the term, unless auto-renewables subscriptions are disabled, your subscription will automatically renew in your iTunes account. You will be charged for the regular price of your subscription within 24 hours prior to the end of the current term. You can turn off automatic renewal in your iTunes account settings at any time, but you must do so at least 24 hours before the end of the current term. Refunds will not be provided for the unused portion of any term. Terms and conditions: https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/app/terms-and-conditions Privacy policy: https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/app/privacy-policy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: SpaceWeatherLive at 53% against Light Pollution Map's 14%. SpaceWeatherLive also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). Light Pollution Map's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 4.0) and ads (none vs shown). On price, ratings volume, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Light Pollution Map sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year and SpaceWeatherLive sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Light Pollution Map holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 239 and 189 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 14% of Light Pollution Map's written reviews are positive against 53% of SpaceWeatherLive's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Light Pollution Map ships an update every 3 weeks, SpaceWeatherLive every 4 months. Both last shipped on October 2, 2026.
| Parameter | Light Pollution Map | SpaceWeatherLive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (239 ratings) — better | 4.0 (189 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 14.1% of reviews | 53.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 239 — better | 189 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #196 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 93 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dunbar Technology, LLC | Parsec vzw |
Customer experience
Light Pollution Map
SpaceWeatherLive
User reviews
Light Pollution Map
From 239 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Clear detailed satellite views
- 🚀 Works with barely any signal
- 📊 Useful map with latest data
- 🌌 Helps with astrophotography
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes on opening the map
- 🐛 Crashes after locating user's position
- 🔍 No legend for map colors
- 💰 Tries to get users to upgrade to premium
SpaceWeatherLive
From 189 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Excellent space weather information
- 🔍 Detailed and informative data
- 📚 Helpful tutorials and explanations
- 🌍 Useful for aurora chasers and enthusiasts
- 🤖 Comprehensive data from various sources
Room to improve
- 🔍 Overwhelming amount of information
- 🔔 Too many notifications/alerts
- 💰 Ads becoming too intrusive
- 🔌 Notifications not always working
- 🤔 Confusing navigation at times
Bugs and requests
Light Pollution Map
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashes when opening light pollution map
- App crashes after locating user's position
- Cloud coverage feature not working as expected
Requested features
3 requests- Add Bortle rating information
- Improve cloud coverage feature
- Fix crashing issues
SpaceWeatherLive
Reported bugs
4 issues- Video links not working
- Alerts disappearing after opening the app
- Inconsistent performance after updates
- Notification count not clearing properly
Requested features
5 requests- Customizable notification settings
- Dark mode option
- Location-based alerts
- Ability to track solar activity trends
- Integration with other weather/astronomy apps
In-app purchases
Light Pollution Map
- Pro Version$9.991 Year
- النسخة الاحترافية$14.991 Year
- النسخة الاحترافية$19.991 Year
- Pro Version Upgrade Discounted$8.99
- Pro Version Upgrade$9.99
SpaceWeatherLive
- Ad-free - monthly package$0.991 Month
- Ad-free - half-yearly package$5.496 Months
- Ad-free - yearly package$9.991 Year
Questions
Is Light Pollution Map free?
Is SpaceWeatherLive free?
Which has better reviews, Light Pollution Map or SpaceWeatherLive?
Do Light Pollution Map or SpaceWeatherLive have ads?
Which is updated more often, Light Pollution Map or SpaceWeatherLive?
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