ASGuide vs Sky Academy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ASGuide
Explore the night sky with this astronomy companion. Discover planets, galaxies, nebulae, and more visible from your location. Generate custom viewing lists and preview celestial objects with an interactive sky atlas.
- Discover celestial objects visible from your location
- Generate custom viewing lists
- View detailed observation information
- Interactive sky atlas preview
- Dark mode for nighttime viewing
- Sunrise/sunset and moon phase dashboard
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Discover the wonders visible in your sky tonight. ASGuide (Astronomy Sky Guide) turns your location and observing time into a personal guide to the night sky. Discover visible planets, galaxies, nebulae, stars, star clusters, and galactic regions. Plan an observation, explore from home, or find your next celestial target. Find objects worth viewing and learn more about every discovery: - See what is visible from your location and when to observe it. View rise, transit, and set times. - Filter by magnitude, altitude above the horizon, constellation, object type, and more. - Search by common name, catalog number, constellation, object type, or detailed classification. - Browse the solar system and deep-sky categories. - Return quickly to recent searches and recently viewed objects. - See which planets are visible. - Save favorite objects for future viewing. - Use your current location or select any location on Earth. - Check sunrise, sunset, twilight, and night times. - Follow the current moon phase, illumination, moonrise, moonset, and the next new and full moons. - Open high-resolution imagery and explore objects with the interactive sky atlas. Customize the Home screen with the information that matters to you. Use the dark appearance for nighttime observations, or the standard iOS appearance. Your next night-sky discovery starts with ASGuide.
Sky Academy
Learn about constellations, stars, and deep sky objects through interactive levels and quizzes. Features realistic sky simulations, customizable learning paths, and offline access. Gamified approach makes astronomy engaging and accessible.
- Learn 88 constellations, 150+ stars, 110 Deep Sky Objects
- 123+ levels for constellations, stars, and DSOs
- Customizable learning lists
- Three difficulty modes per level
- Realistic night sky simulation
- Offline access, no ads
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Features: - 123 levels teach, train and test your knowledge of all 88 constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union. - 180 levels teach, train and test your knowledge of 150+ brightest stars of the sky. - NEW! 153 levels teach, train and test your knowledge of 110 Deep Sky Objects (Messier Objects). - Create your own list of constellations, stars and DSOs for learning and practice. - 7 default presets (e.g. zodiac constellations & navigational stars) ready for use. - Three training and testing modes for each level (easy, medium and hard) to help you progress smoothly and guide you to eventually recognize the constellations, stars and DSOs in the real night sky. - Opportunity to review your mistakes after completing each level. - Device-specific pronunciation for constellations, stars and DSOs. - Realistic night sky simulation and beautiful illustrations and animations. - Combination of learning and gaming. Learn while having fun. - Explore the mysterious night sky on your own on the Explore screen. - Completely configure the game according to your preference. Adjust sounds & vibrations, change appearance of the sky (stars, illustrations, constellation lines, borders of constellations, equatorial grid lines, focus ring, Milky Way, etc.) and so on. - Night mode to reduce the strain on the eyes. - Absolutely no ads. - Works completely offline. Game The game is designed to teach the user to recognize all the 88 modern constellations, brightest stars and 110 Messier Objects by taking them through a number of levels. Levels are divided into categories (constellations, stars & DSOs), regions (north, equator, south) and difficulties (easy, medium, hard). Each level teaches only a small number of objects and then trains the knowledge in a quiz game to aid memorization. Later levels also review and retest the knowledge of previously learnt objects. Levels In each level, you're first given an opportunity to see and memorize the objects (constellations, stars or DSOs) of that level. Use the arrows to go through all of them, and click 'Start' once you're ready. The description of each object is displayed on the panel at the bottom of the screen. The panel can be expanded by dragging it up to show more details about the object. After clicking “Start”, an object will be shown and you’ll be presented with 4 options. The level ends when you answer a certain number of questions (shown in the top-left corner) correctly. At the end of the level you'll have the opportunity to review the mistakes you’ve made before progressing further. Please note, in challenge levels, no hints are available and you are given only a limited number of lives to pass them. Difficulties Each level is available in 3 difficulties: easy, medium, and hard. Easy levels show the lines of the constellations, making the experience less similar to the real night sky, but it's the first step of learning. Medium levels hide the lines of the constellations, but show their precise borders and the lines of the surrounding constellations to help the recognition. Hard levels are closest to the real night sky: they only show the approximate location of the objects, instead of the exact shape (the borders), and randomly choose the orientation each time, so that you learn to recognize the objects from another angle. We recommend going through each difficulty, from easy to hard. Explore screen The explore screen (third button on the main screen) allows you to explore the sky on your own. Tapping on the objects (e.g. names of the stars or constellations) shows more information about them (e.g. abbreviation, brightest star, area of the sky, distance etc.). You can also use the same double-tap gesture to quickly hide/reveal all the decorations. The search icon (top-right corner) allows you to quickly find a particular object you're interested in. Privacy Policy: https://www.dong.digital/skyacademy/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://www.dong.digital/skyacademy/tos/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ASGuide at none against Sky Academy's 1. Sky Academy's advantage is ratings volume (197 vs 9) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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. Sky Academy sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. ASGuide asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for ASGuide against 4.9 for Sky Academy. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sky Academy has 197 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 4 months. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | ASGuide | Sky Academy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (9 ratings) | 4.9 (197 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 9 | 197 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 33 MB | 45 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Philip Perez | Xiang Dong |
Customer experience
ASGuide
Sky Academy
In-app purchases
ASGuide
No in-app purchases
Sky Academy
- Lifetime Premium$4.99







