Space Arc vs PALE space
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Space Arc
Explore celestial events with real-time data from NASA and other space agencies. Track satellites, view stunning astronomy pictures, and get personalized alerts for meteor showers, eclipses, and aurora.
- Real-time satellite tracking
- NASA Picture of the Day
- Global launch calendar
- Celestial events calendar
- Aurora alerts
- Smart notifications
- Offline event caching
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Space Arc tells you what's worth stepping outside for tonight — when to go, where to look, and whether the clouds will cooperate. Meteor showers, planets, the ISS, Starlink trains, eclipses, the aurora, full Moons and rocket launches, all worked out for your exact location, with a weather-based Sky Score so you only head out when it's worth it. TONIGHT'S PLAN A simple timeline for tonight: sunset, full darkness, moonrise and moonset, each planet at its best, and every event you can actually see. A "Now" marker shows what's up right now. FIND IT IN THE SKY • AR Sky Finder — hold up your phone and follow the arrow until the target is in the circle. Works for planets, the Moon, meteor-shower radiants and satellites. • Where Do I Look? — a compass guide with the direction and height above the horizon. • Live Track — follow the International Space Station in real time, with a countdown to its next visible pass. EVENTS THAT FIT YOUR NIGHT • Meteor showers — the best hours of the peak night where you are, with realistic hourly rates that account for the radiant's height, twilight and moonlight. • Planets — oppositions, the best evenings and mornings for Mercury and Venus, and a live "Tonight's Sky" card with rise and set times. • Moon — full Moons, supermoons, blue moons and moonless Dark Sky Windows. • Eclipses — whether you'll see each solar and lunar eclipse from your location, and how much of the Sun will be covered. • Satellites — ISS flyovers, Hubble and Tiangong passes, and "Starlink trains" right after launches. • Aurora — NOAA geomagnetic storm alerts, shown only when it's dark and the storm can reach your latitude. • Space weather, rocket launches and near-Earth asteroid flybys. KNOW BEFORE YOU GO • Sky Score — Apple Weather cloud forecasts for the clearest dark hour of each viewing window. • Clear-sky alerts — one optional heads-up before sunset when something special is up and the forecast looks clear. • Reminders and Calendar — get notified before an event or add it to your calendar. Reminders update automatically if a launch is rescheduled. • Home Screen widget — tonight's best event and its Sky Score at a glance. YOUR OBSERVING LOG Tap "I saw it" to save sightings with notes and photos. Earn badges like Meteor Hunter, Station Spotter and Planet Collector, keep a weekly streak, and share good-looking cards of what you saw. EVERY DAY NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day and the latest image from the Hubble Space Telescope. ACCURATE AND PRIVATE Sky positions, twilight, Moon phases, planet events, meteor peaks and satellite orbits are calculated on your phone using established astronomical methods and NASA/NORAD orbital data. Your observing log and photos stay on your device. Data from NASA (APOD, DONKI, NeoWs, JPL Horizons), NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, Launch Library 2, CelesTrak, N2YO, ESA/Hubble and Apple Weather.
PALE space
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Some problems only look large from where you are standing. Open PALE. In sixty seconds it takes you from the pale blue dot you are standing on, through the solar system, across the Milky Way, to the edge of everything we can see. Then it brings you back. You were always here. YOUR STAR There is a real star whose light left the year you were born and is arriving at Earth right now. PALE finds it. Tells you everything about it. Shows you how to find it in tonight's sky. THE SHIFT A 60-second perspective journey from Earth to the observable universe. Watch the scale expand. Feel the silence. Return smaller — in the best possible way. TONIGHT'S SKY What's above you right now. Your location. The real sky. One object. One truth about it. An invitation to go outside and look up. YOUR PLACE How far you've travelled through space since you were born. How many heartbeats. Which cosmic milestones happened in your lifetime. JOURNAL A private space for your thoughts. Every entry records the moon phase and the age of the universe at the exact moment you write. The universe has been here for 13.8 billion years. It will be here when you need it.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: PALE space at none against Space Arc's shown. PALE space also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.6). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Space Arc ships an update monthly, PALE space every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Space Arc | PALE space |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Marc L. Melcher | Zakaria Bachi |
In-app purchases
Space Arc
No in-app purchases
PALE space
No in-app purchases









