Leascope vs Black Hole Vision
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Leascope
Explore historical map data to visualize hypothetical future paths. See where you would end up if you continued in a straight line based on past geographical information. This educational tool offers a unique perspective on historical cartography.
- Historical map data visualization
- Hypothetical future path projection
- Straight-line trajectory simulation
- Educational cartography tool
- Interactive map exploration
Read full descriptionHide full description
Find out where you would end up if you kept going straight Historical map data from André Ourednik's Historical Basemaps project
Black Hole Vision
Experience the universe through the lens of a black hole. This app simulates how a black hole would warp your camera's view, revealing a photon ring and offering a glimpse into advanced astronomical concepts. Explore the science behind black hole lensing with open-source code and educational resources.
- Live camera feed simulation
- Black hole lensing effect
- Photon ring visualization
- Open-source code available
- Educational insights into astrophysics
Read full descriptionHide full description
What would the world around you look like if you were staring at a black hole? This application places a black hole in the field of view of your iPhone’s camera and gravitationally "lenses" the resulting live video feeds just as a black hole would warp the light from surrounding stars. The resulting "Black Hole Vision" reveals interesting features of black hole lensing, including a "photon ring" of strongly lensed images around the black hole. The measurement of this photon ring will be the target of future astronomical observations from space with the Black Hole Explorer: an orbit satellite that will take the sharpest images in the history of astronomy! To learn more about BHEX, head over to https://www.blackholeexplorer.org/. The code is open source and freely available on GitHub at https://github.com/graveltr/BlackHoleVision, along with documentation that explains the underlying black hole lensing equations and how they are implemented in Black Hole Vision. The code was written at Vanderbilt University by Trevor Gravely with input from Dr. Roman Berens and Prof. Alex Lupsasca. We also acknowledge Dominic Chang for useful input and comments. This project was supported by CAREER award PHY-2340457 and grant AST-2307888 from the National Science Foundation. The lensed image of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 was generated using material produced by NASA and STScI and can be found here: https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2006/10/1865-Image.html?news=true. License: This app includes a port of the GNU Scientific Library's (GSL) implementation of Jacobi elliptic functions and the elliptic integrals to Metal. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0). You can view the full license and obtain a copy of the source code at: https://github.com/graveltr/BlackHoleVision.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Leascope at daily against Black Hole Vision's every 2 weeks. Black Hole Vision's advantage is ratings volume (24 vs 1). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Leascope holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Black Hole Vision has 24 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Leascope ships an update daily, Black Hole Vision every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Leascope | Black Hole Vision |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.8 (24 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 24 — better |
| Update frequency | Daily — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.5 | 17.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 64 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ben Gross | Alexandru Lupsasca |
Customer experience
Leascope
Black Hole Vision
In-app purchases
Leascope
No in-app purchases
Black Hole Vision
No in-app purchases









