Celestial Navigation vs Ecliptic Compass
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Celestial Navigation
This application assists with celestial navigation by performing sextant sight reduction calculations. It displays intermediate numbers for verification and can draw lines of position on a map. Features include a perpetual nautical almanac and a star finder to identify celestial bodies.
- Sextant sight reduction calculations
- Perpetual nautical almanac
- Line of position calculation and plotting
- Star Finder for celestial identification
- Save and manage sextant readings
- Display intermediate calculation numbers
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This app does all the calculations to reduce a sextant reading to a line of position on the map. All intermediate numbers are shown to check your manual calculations. • Perpetual nautical almanac • Calculation of the line of position (azimuth and distance) • Draws the line of position on the map. • Star Finder: just point your device to the sky to identify the navigational stars. • Save your readings, choose what to show on the map. A sextant is required to make full use of this app.
Ecliptic Compass
This navigation app displays the ecliptic plane, Sun, Moon, and planet directions on a compass. It helps users verify compass accuracy using celestial bodies and offers manual rectification. It also generates horoscope charts and allows custom time/location views.
- Normal compass functionality
- Ecliptic plane, Sun, Moon, planet directions
- Manual compass rectification
- Horoscope chart generation
- Custom time and location settings
- Offline location database
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Features: *Normal Compass(check the location shown in the bottom first. You can use the button in the bottom left to retrieve your current location) *Drawing the Ecliptic Plane, the Sun, the Moon and the planet symbols on the compass based on your location. *Showing the Sun, the Moon and other visible planets directions(azimuth) on the compass based on your location. *You can use the celestial bodies direction to confirm that the compass is pointing to the north. You can even using the celestial bodies' directions to manually rectify the compass pointing if it shows the pointer is offset by background noises. *Horoscope chart based on current time and location. *Custom time and location for the ecliptic plane view and horoscope view *10 random locations to see what the sky looks like in other locations. This is not just another compass App. Other than the normal compass feature. The Sun, the Moon and other planets' direction are also shown on the compass so that you know if the compass is affected by the background noise or not. We all know that the compass is easy to be interfered when you are inside a concrete house, near electronics or some other situations. But currently the built-in compass could not neutralize those background magnetic fields. Here comes this Ecliptic Compass app, you could use the Sun, the Moon's or even some planets' azimuth(direction) to know that if the compass is pointing to the north and you are heading to the right direction. As long as you could see the celestial bodies in the sky. Manually rectifying the compass, if you find that the Sun or the Moon's direction in the sky is offset quite a bit from the computed direction. You could use the Manual Rectification feature to temporarily to override the pointer so that your could still get the right direction. Power efficient, the app is designed to work offline most of the time. No unnecessary feature/APIs is called, No data collection. The location service only tries to get your coordinates at start-up or when you tap the big refresh button from surrounding hotspots, data or GPS. It uses data only when you want to use the map to retrieve a place's coordinates. You can also use the offline location database to search for the latitude/longitude from over 40 thousand cities and towns. Location database is provided by Simplemaps.com under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Colorful astrological symbols, we use astrology/astronomy symbols to show the luminaries, planets and zodiac signs. And the colors we use follow the astrological conventions. Renaissance astrological art, the twelve zodiac signs art is from the Zodiac Clock at San Marco square in Venice. Preset places, there are about 10 preset places(coordinates) at the moment which you could try and get the feeling about how the app works. Custom location and time, you could input the latitude and longitude and time to draw the ecliptic items and horoscope chart.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Celestial Navigation at 77% against Ecliptic Compass's 0%. Celestial Navigation also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 10 months) and ratings volume (15 vs 3). Ecliptic Compass's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.2). On price, ads, 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
Celestial Navigation costs $1.99 and Ecliptic Compass $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Ecliptic Compass holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Celestial Navigation has 15 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 77% of Celestial Navigation's written reviews are positive against 0% of Ecliptic Compass's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Celestial Navigation ships an update every 5 days, Ecliptic Compass every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Celestial Navigation | Ecliptic Compass |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | $1.99 |
| Rating | 4.2 (15 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 77.3% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 15 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Every 10 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #40 — better | #170 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 51 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dr. Harald Merkel | wing lun tong |
Customer experience
Celestial Navigation
Ecliptic Compass
In-app purchases
Celestial Navigation
No in-app purchases
Ecliptic Compass
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Celestial Navigation free?
Is Ecliptic Compass free?
Which has better reviews, Celestial Navigation or Ecliptic Compass?
Do Celestial Navigation or Ecliptic Compass have ads?
Which is updated more often, Celestial Navigation or Ecliptic Compass?
Which is more popular, Celestial Navigation or Ecliptic Compass?
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