88 constellations vs The Sky Now
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
88 constellations
Explore the night sky and identify celestial objects like stars, planets, and constellations. Set the sky to any position and time to learn about the universe.
- Identify stars and planets
- View constellations
- Set sky position and time
- Interactive sky map
- Educational astronomy tool
Read full descriptionHide full description
The application allows you to set the sky by position and time, to identify the stars, planets and constellations.
The Sky Now
Read full descriptionHide full description
The Sky Now is an illustrated, offline guide to the night sky, built around a curated catalog of well-known stars, planets, Messier objects, and satellites. SKY CHART — pan and zoom an interactive chart of 24 curated objects: bright stars, the visible planets, a few showpiece nebulae, clusters, and galaxies, each with real astronomical facts (magnitude, distance, right ascension/declination). Toggle constellation lines, a coordinate grid, and labels, or switch to a red night-vision theme to protect your dark adaptation. Scrub through hours or days to watch the sky's simplified rotation. TONIGHT & OBSERVE — a "Tonight" panel highlights a few objects worth seeking out, and a personal observation log lets you check off what you've actually seen. SATELLITES — a guide to 13 notable satellites and objects, including the ISS, Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope, weather and navigation satellites, and a couple of tracked debris fragments, with real specs (altitude, orbital period, inclination) and an optional reminder notification ahead of an approximate pass. SCOPE — a demo telescope-mount panel modeled on the ASCOM Alpaca/INDI protocols real equatorial mounts use, for exploring the workflow without needing hardware. This is an offline, illustrative reference, not a precision tracker: satellite pass times and sky positions are representative, not computed from live orbital data or your GPS location, and the app ships with four preset observing locations (Chicago, Mauna Kea, London, Sydney) rather than device location. No account, no ads, no in-app purchases, and no data collection of any kind.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: The Sky Now at every 6 weeks against 88 constellations's every 4 months. 88 constellations's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 18.0). On price, ads, 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.
88 constellations ships an update every 4 months, The Sky Now every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | 88 constellations | The Sky Now |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 6 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Vladimir Vascak | Amol Srivastava |
In-app purchases
88 constellations
No in-app purchases
The Sky Now
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is 88 constellations free?
Is The Sky Now free?
Do 88 constellations or The Sky Now have ads?
Which is updated more often, 88 constellations or The Sky Now?
Other comparisons















