Lunar Observer vs Telescope Log
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lunar Observer
Track the moon's phases, illumination, and rise/set times with precise astronomical calculations. View upcoming solar and lunar eclipses, and access a Hijri calendar. Get optional notifications for celestial events and enjoy an authentic Arabic interface.
- Precise moon phase and illumination tracking
- Sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset times
- Upcoming solar and lunar eclipse coverage
- Hijri calendar with moon phase markers
- Customizable notifications for celestial events
- Choice of NASA imagery or 3D terrain model
- Full Arabic localization
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Track the Moon in breathtaking detail. Lunar Observer puts professional-grade astronomical calculations in your pocket — from moonrise and moonset times, illumination percentage, and solar and lunar eclipses, all the way to the Hijri calendar. Everything is computed with absolute precision based on your exact geographic location. PRECISE MOON DATA • Current moon phase with a live readout of illumination percentage and libration. • Sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset times accurate to the second. • Celestial coordinates: altitude, azimuth, and elongation from the Sun. • Distance from Earth, angular diameter, and moon age. 24-HOUR TIMELINE Scrub through the hours with the slider to see exactly where the Moon sits above your horizon at any moment — from the instant it rises to the moment it sets. CHOOSE YOUR MOON Pick between real NASA imagery (per-date photographs from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, covering 2022–2026 and updated each new year) — or use a live 3D model built from the actual LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) terrain data, with real libration and earthshine on the dark side (recommended for years not covered by NASA's photos). ECLIPSES Comprehensive coverage of every upcoming solar and lunar eclipse, with local circumstances computed for your coordinates. See whether each event is visible from where you are, along with timings from start to finish, eclipse magnitude, and the Moon's altitude at maximum. HIJRI CALENDAR A monthly view of the Hijri calendar with moon-phase markers, anchored to your local timezone so the Hijri date rolls over correctly no matter where you are in the world. NOTIFICATIONS Optional alerts for tonight's moonrise and moonset, the full moon, the supermoon, solar and lunar eclipses visible from your location, the day-29 Hijri crescent watch, and a daily moon brief at the time you choose. All local on your device, with no notification servers. AUTHENTIC ARABIC INTERFACE Full right-to-left Arabic localization, with an option for Arabic-Indic numerals (٠١٢٣…) or a switch to Western digits, and authentic astronomical terminology — محاق, هلال, بدر, كسوف, خسوف — free from clunky machine translation. Arabic day and month names appear throughout the app. GET STARTED GUIDE A short, friendly walkthrough on first launch that shows you how to navigate the timeline, set your location, explore the Hijri month, and turn on notifications. You can re-open it anytime from the "?" mark in Settings. PRIVACY FIRST Your location data never leaves your device. No tracking, no analytics, no account required. Technical note: the app's calculations are powered by NASA's JPL DE440 ephemeris — the same high-precision model used by NASA Horizons and spacecraft navigation — with the VSOP87 and ELP/MPP02 algorithms as a fallback. Sub-arc-second accuracy, with coverage from 1549 to 2650.
Telescope Log
This app helps telescope owners plan their night of stargazing by suggesting targets based on their equipment and sky conditions. It also provides a detailed logbook for recording observations and tracks progress towards astronomy certificates.
- Gear-aware target suggestions
- Session queue and planning
- Detailed observing logbook
- Red field mode for night vision
- Tracking for astronomy certificates
- Offline functionality
- Data export and import
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Stargazing planner and telescope observing log for amateur astronomers. Know what is worth observing tonight with your telescope, your eyepieces and your sky. Then log it in seconds in a true red night mode. Works offline. No account, no ads. Pay once, no subscription. Open Darksite on a clear evening and it lays out your night like an almanac page: your dark window, the moon's schedule, the cloud outlook, and a shortlist of targets picked for your gear. Every pick explains itself in plain words: "M13: peaks 11:24 pm at 68 degrees, fits your 24 mm eyepiece, moon well out of the way, on your Herschel 400 list." No mystery scores. No thousand-object dumps. Then it runs the session. Queue your targets, work through them at the eyepiece in a genuine red field mode (every screen night-vision safe, down to a custom red keyboard), and capture each observation in seconds: hold the button, say what you saw. Date, time, site, gear, magnification and field of view fill themselves in. And it keeps your observing life. Every session searchable by object, eyepiece, sky quality or site. Messier, Herschel 400 and Lunar certificate programs track themselves as you log, with validated, coordinator-ready export packages when you are ready to submit. BUILT FOR OBSERVERS • Tonight, for your telescope: gear-aware target picks with the reasoning spelled out • Session queue: plan the night, reorder by transit, carry unfinished targets forward • A real observing log: seeing and transparency scales, sketches, voice notes, photos • Gear locker: scopes, eyepieces, filters, Barlows; true field of view, magnification and exit pupil computed for every combination • Life-lists: Messier, Herschel 400, Lunar; watch the certificates fill in • Red field mode: near-black and red everywhere, brightness floored, no white flashes • Sky events: ISS passes, meteor showers, aurora outlook, cloud and conditions YOURS, PROPERLY • Private by design: no account, no ads, no tracking. Your log lives on your device • Works fully offline: the catalog, the math and your log never need a signal • Your data is never hostage: CSV and JSON export and import, backup and restore, free, always • Pay once for Pro. No subscription. Ever. Darksite is not a planetarium. It is the missing half of the hobby: the planner and the logbook, done properly. It works alongside the sky-map app you already own.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Lunar Observer at 5.0 against Telescope Log's 4.5. On price, review sentiment, ratings volume 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Lunar Observer holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 2 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Lunar Observer ships an update monthly, Telescope Log every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lunar Observer | Telescope Log |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better | 4.5 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 331 MB | 70 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Humoud Salmeen | Jawahar Natarajan |
Customer experience
Lunar Observer
Telescope Log
In-app purchases
Lunar Observer
No in-app purchases
Telescope Log
No in-app purchases





