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.
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.
- 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
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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
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
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
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.
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.
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.
| Parameter | APT Darkness Clock | SkySafari 7 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $17.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better | 4.6 (5.5K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 45.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 5.5K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 11 days — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #176 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 14.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 2.4 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ivaylo Stoynov | Simulation Curriculum Corp. |
Customer experience
APT Darkness Clock
SkySafari 7 Pro
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
APT Darkness Clock
No in-app purchases
SkySafari 7 Pro
- SkySafari Premium Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- SkySafari Premium7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- PGC Galaxy DatabaseFree
- GAIA Star DatabaseFree
- Apollo Lunar MissionsFree
Questions
Is APT Darkness Clock free?
Is SkySafari 7 Pro free?
Which has better reviews, APT Darkness Clock or SkySafari 7 Pro?
Do APT Darkness Clock or SkySafari 7 Pro have ads?
Which is updated more often, APT Darkness Clock or SkySafari 7 Pro?
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