Comparison

88 constellations vs The Sky Now

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Identify stars and planets
  • View constellations
  • Set sky position and time
  • Interactive sky map
  • Educational astronomy tool
Features
Read full description

The application allows you to set the sky by position and time, to identify the stars, planets and constellations.

About

The Sky Now

Features
Read 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

The Sky Now2 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
88 constellations versus The Sky Now: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter88 constellationsThe Sky Now
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS12.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVladimir VascakAmol Srivastava

In-app purchases

None

88 constellations

No in-app purchases

None

The Sky Now

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is 88 constellations free?
88 constellations is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is The Sky Now free?
The Sky Now is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do 88 constellations or The Sky Now have ads?
Neither 88 constellations nor The Sky Now shows ads.
Which is updated more often, 88 constellations or The Sky Now?
88 constellations ships an update every 4 months, and The Sky Now every 6 weeks. Most recently, 88 constellations was updated on October 4, 2026 and The Sky Now on October 29, 2026.

Other comparisons