Cosmic Journey Into Space vs Deep Sky Scanner
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
Cosmic Journey Into Space
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Start where you are on Earth. Look up at your own sky, choose something in it, and fly there. Every flight is a straight line through one map of the universe, and what you see on the way is what is there. YOUR SKY IS THE STARTING POINT Use your location, or pick a launch site on a map. The sky above you is drawn for this moment: blue by day, stars coming out through twilight, the Moon in its real phase, the planets where they are. A strip shows what is above you right now. Point your phone at the sky, or drag to look around. Keep something in the circle for a moment, or tap it, and it is chosen. Then press Go. FLIGHTS THAT TAKE SECONDS The app sets the pace: about six seconds to the Moon, never more than fourteen to the farthest galaxy. Lift-off and arrival are gentle, and the middle is as fast as it needs to be. One quiet line names the real distances you pass: the edge of space, the Moon's distance, the nearest star. Pause anywhere, look back toward home, and read how old the light from Earth is where you are. THEN GO OUTSIDE AND FIND IT When you arrive, the app tells you where that place is in the real sky over your launch site at that moment: how high, in which direction, whether your own eyes could see it, or when it rises. One tap stands you back on the ground facing it. WORLDS AS THEY ARE Earth, the Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune wear maps made from spacecraft images, turned the way they really face and lit from where the Sun really is. Look up Europa, Titan or Triton through NASA and they do too. Stars are coloured by their temperature. Black holes bend the light around them. Where a surface is not known, as for Venus under its clouds or any exoplanet, the app says it is a model. A UNIVERSE OF REAL PLACES More than 400,000 destinations work offline: the stars you can see and hundreds of thousands you cannot, 6,344 exoplanets, and 53,914 galaxies at their catalogued distances. Search by name or catalogue number. Leave the Galaxy and the stars thin out to nothing, because that is where the stars are not. Each faint glow ahead is a whole galaxy. SEE WHERE YOU WENT Finish a journey and your route is drawn on a map that is to scale. Flights can differ in length by a factor of trillions, so the map pulls back through each in turn, and its scale bar always says the real length it shows. A journey log keeps the places you have reached. BEYOND THE BUNDLED CATALOG Request more Solar System bodies from NASA JPL Horizons, and distant objects from SIMBAD when a usable distance is known. Results are kept for offline use. Lookups and the launch-site map need an internet connection. Everything bundled works without one. WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT Positions, distances, sizes, phases and orientations are measured or computed. Travelling faster than light is fiction, and the app says so while you do it. Star surfaces, ring detail, exoplanets and the shapes of most galaxies are models and are labelled as such. Earth is a smooth globe without terrain or buildings. Sky colours are a display model. Phone aiming depends on your compass. What the app says about your own sky cannot know about cloud, hills or city lights. No account is required. Location and motion access are optional. Your launch site and journeys stay on your device. The original guided journeys remain in the menu.
Deep Sky Scanner
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Point your phone at the sky and know instantly whatβs worth imaging. Deep Sky Scanner turns your device into an aiming tool for the Seestar S50, scanning your field of view and ranking every galaxy, cluster, and nebula by altitude, brightness, and how well itβll actually fit your frame. No more guessing whatβs up, no star-hopping, no wasted setup time on a target thatβs too big or too faint for tonightβs sky. FEATURES β’ Live sky scan β see every object in view as you move your phone, tracked with full 3D orientation for steady accuracy even near the zenith β’ Ranked target lists β sorted by altitude trajectory, brightness, or best overall fit for your Seestar S50 β’ Frame-fit scoring β know before you start whether an object will actually fit the frame, not spill past the edges β’ Ascending/descending badges β see whether a target is climbing toward better altitude or already past its peak β’ Planning mode β drag the time slider to preview the sky at any hour and plan your session in advance β’ Per-object imaging notes β integration-time guidance by magnitude, edge-on galaxy detection, and nearby-companion flags β’ Full OpenNGC catalog with offline fallback β works even without a signal β’ Additional catalogs are available and can be optionally selected on the settings page β’ Supports the Seestar family of telescopes Built by a Seestar owner, for Seestar owners.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Deep Sky Scanner at every 4 days against Cosmic Journey Into Space's every 3 weeks. Deep Sky Scanner also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Cosmic Journey Into Space ships an update every 3 weeks, Deep Sky Scanner every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cosmic Journey Into Space | Deep Sky Scanner |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 4 days β better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod β better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 β better |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 84 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Andrew Marc | Chris Eddy |
In-app purchases
Cosmic Journey Into Space
No in-app purchases
Deep Sky Scanner
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Cosmic Journey Into Space free?
Is Deep Sky Scanner free?
Do Cosmic Journey Into Space or Deep Sky Scanner have ads?
Which is updated more often, Cosmic Journey Into Space or Deep Sky Scanner?
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