Comparison

APT Darkness Clock vs SkySafari 7 Pro

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

Head to head
About

APT Darkness Clock

This app calculates the optimal times for deep sky astrophotography and observation based on your location and night sky conditions. It determines the duration and start/end times of ideal darkness, excluding twilight and moonlight.

Highlights
  • Calculates Deep Sky Darkness Time (DSD Time)
  • Determines start and end times for DSD Time
  • Calculates DSD Time duration
  • Supports current location
  • Allows storing up to three observing sites
  • Free and ad-free
Features
Read full description

APT Darkness Clock (APT DC) is a free app without ads, that calculates the suitable time for deep sky astrophotography or observing in selected night and location. It is a small sub-set of a full featured desktop application named APT - Astro Photography Tool. APT is like Swiss army knife for your astro imaging sessions. No matter what are imaging with - Canon EOS, Nikon, CCD or CMOS astro camera, APT has the right tool for planning, collimating, aligning, focusing, framing, plate-solving, controlling, imaging, synchronizing, scheduling, analyzing, monitoring and more. You can find additional information about APT at www.astroplace.net. To image or observe a faint deep sky objects is needed to use the darkest time of the night. This is the time between the evening astro twilight end, the morning astro twilight beginning and when the Moon is below the horizon. In APT that time is named DSD Time - Deep Sky Darkness Time. The purpose of APT DC is to calculate what is the DSD Time duration and when this time starts/ends for selected night and location. It is possible to use the current location or one of three other stored observing sites. For suggestions and support related to APT DC, use the dedicated section of the APT Forum at - http://aptforum.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=26

About

SkySafari 7 Pro

Explore the night sky with an extensive astronomy database and advanced planning tools. Discover astronomical events, control your telescope, and connect with other stargazers in real-time.

Highlights
  • Extensive celestial object database
  • Advanced event finder
  • Telescope control (ASCOM Alpaca, INDI, StarSense)
  • Real-time social stargazing (OneSky)
  • Guided sky tours (SkyCast)
  • Observation planning and logging
  • Home and lock screen widgets
Features
Read full description

SkySafari makes stargazing a simple pleasure. It has the largest database of any astronomy app, includes every comet, asteroid, satellite & solar system object ever discovered, offers unparalleled accuracy, advanced planning and logging tools, flawless telescope control, and provides the very best experience under the stars when you depend on it. Don’t postpone joy. Discover why SkySafari is the #1 recommended astronomy app for serious amateur astronomers since 2009. Here's what’s new in version 7: + Complete support for iOS 18 and iPhone 16. Version 7 brings a new and immersive stargazing experience. + Events Finder - go to the new Events section to unlock a powerful search engine that finds astronomical events visible tonight and far into the future. The finder dynamically generates a listing of moon phases, eclipses, planetary moon events, meteor showers and planetary phenomenon such as conjunctions, elongations and oppositions. + Notifications - the notifications section has been completely revamped to allow you to customize and manage which events trigger an alert notification on your device. + Telescope Support - telescope control is at the heart of SkySafari. Version 7 takes a giant leap forward by supporting ASCOM Alpaca, INDI & StarSense Explorer. These next generation control protocols allow you to effortlessly connect to hundreds of compatible astronomical devices. SkySafari 7 brings social stargazing to mobile devices with two new features to help you connect with other like minded people. OneSky - allows you to see what other users are observing, in real time. This feature highlights objects in the sky chart and indicates with a number how many users are observing a particular object. SkyCast - allows you to guide a friend or group around the night sky through their own copy of SkySafari. After initiating SkyCast, you can generate a link and conveniently share it with other SkySafari users via text message, apps or social media accounts. + Sky Tonight - jump to the new Tonight section to see what’s visible in your sky tonight. Expanded information has been designed to help plan your night and includes Moon & Sun info, calendar curations, events and the best positioned deep sky and solar system objects. + Improved Observation Tools - SkySafari is the perfect tool to help you plan, record and organize your observations. New workflows make it easier to add, search, filter and sort data. + Home Screen and Lock Screen Widgets keep your favorite astro information at your fingertips. The Small Touches: + You can now edit the Jupiter GRS Longitude Value in the Settings. + Better Moon Age calculation. + New grid & reference options allow you to display Solstice and Equinox markers, Orbit + Node markers for all solar system objects, and tick marks and labels for the Ecliptic, Meridian, and Equator reference lines. + Previous In-app Purchases are Now Free - this includes the H-R diagram, 3D Galaxy view, and the PGC galaxy and GAIA star catalogs. Enjoy. + Many more. If you haven't used SkySafari 7 Pro before, here's what you can do with it: + Hold your device up, and SkySafari 7 Pro will find stars, constellations, planets, and more! + Simulate the night sky up to 5MM years in the past or future! Animate meteor showers, conjunctions, eclipses, and other celestial events. + Control your telescope, log and plan your observations. + Optionally backup all of your observing data in our secure cloud storage and make it easily accessible to multiple devices as well as from our new web interface, LiveSky.com. + Augmented Reality (AR) mode + Night Vision. + Orbit Mode. Leave the Earth’s surface behind, and fly through our solar system. + Galaxy View shows the position of deep sky objects in our Milky Way! https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ https://www.livesky.com/privacy.html

Screenshots

APT Darkness Clock3 screens
SkySafari 7 Pro4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: APT Darkness Clock at 100% against SkySafari 7 Pro's 46%. APT Darkness Clock also leads on price (Free vs $17.99) and in-app purchases (none vs 5). SkySafari 7 Pro's advantage is ratings volume (5.5K vs 5) and chart position (#176 vs unranked). On ads 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

APT Darkness Clock is free to download; SkySafari 7 Pro costs $17.99 up front. SkySafari 7 Pro sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. APT Darkness Clock asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

APT Darkness Clock holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SkySafari 7 Pro has 5.5K ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of APT Darkness Clock's written reviews are positive against 46% of SkySafari 7 Pro's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

APT Darkness Clock ships an update every 11 days, SkySafari 7 Pro every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
APT Darkness Clock versus SkySafari 7 Pro: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAPT Darkness ClockSkySafari 7 Pro
PriceFree — better$17.99
Rating5.0 (5 ratings) — better4.6 (5.5K ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better45.8% of reviews
Number of ratings55.5K — better
Update frequencyEvery 11 days — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#176 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS10.0 — better14.1
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB2.4 GB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperIvaylo StoynovSimulation Curriculum Corp.

Customer experience

APT Darkness Clock

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

SkySafari 7 Pro

All ratings5,434 ratings
Positive91.4%
Neutral2.6%
Negative5.9%
Written reviews360 reviews
Positive45.8%
Neutral14.4%
Negative39.7%

Bugs and requests

APT Darkness Clock

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

SkySafari 7 Pro

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Free database downloads fail to complete
  • Telescope button crashes the app
  • Time settings spontaneously reset
  • Observing list crashes the app
  • Field of view indicators not working

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to quickly edit light form
  • Allow custom horizon mask input
  • Include surface brightness data for extended objects
  • Add transit altitude information for objects
  • Improve object search with fuzzy matching

In-app purchases

None

APT Darkness Clock

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

SkySafari 7 Pro

Subscriptions2
  • SkySafari Premium Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • SkySafari Premium7 Days trial$39.991 Year
One-time3
  • PGC Galaxy DatabaseFree
  • GAIA Star DatabaseFree
  • Apollo Lunar MissionsFree

Questions

Is APT Darkness Clock free?
APT Darkness Clock is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is SkySafari 7 Pro free?
SkySafari 7 Pro costs $17.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, APT Darkness Clock or SkySafari 7 Pro?
APT Darkness Clock is rated higher. APT Darkness Clock averages 5.0 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while SkySafari 7 Pro averages 4.6 from 5.5K ratings.
Do APT Darkness Clock or SkySafari 7 Pro have ads?
Neither APT Darkness Clock nor SkySafari 7 Pro shows ads.
Which is updated more often, APT Darkness Clock or SkySafari 7 Pro?
APT Darkness Clock ships an update every 11 days, and SkySafari 7 Pro every 5 weeks. Most recently, APT Darkness Clock was updated on October 24, 2026 and SkySafari 7 Pro on October 30, 2026.

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