SkySafari 7 Pro

Review by eFreeware

SkySafari 7 Pro is an astronomy star map for Android from Simulation Curriculum Corp. It sits in the Education category rather than the game shelves, and it sells for $17.99 with no advertising; in-app purchases are offered on top of that. The reason to consider it over a free chart is the scope of what it puts in one place: a sky map, a simulator, planning and logging tools, and telescope control.

The install base is modest for an app of this reputation — over 10,000 installs and a 4.0 average from 1,935 ratings — which tells you this is a specialist purchase rather than a casual download. It was released in June 2022 and the most recent update, in March 2026, fixed an issue that came up when saving an image with SmartEye. That the developer is still patching details years in is a reasonable sign for anyone weighing a one-off cost.

Pointing the phone, and what the chart does

The basic interaction is the one most people want from a star map. Hold the device up and the app identifies stars, constellations, planets and other objects, with the chart redrawing itself as the device moves. That turns a phone into a finder rather than a reference book you flip through, and it is the part most users will lean on first.

Beyond the live view, the app simulates the night sky across an enormous span — up to 100,000 years into the past or the future — and can play out events such as meteor showers, eclipses and conjunctions over time. It suits people who want to understand how the sky changes over long periods, or to check how an event looked or will look from a given place.

Two viewing modes extend the perspective further. Orbit Mode lifts you off the Earth's surface to move through the solar system, and Galaxy View places deep sky objects within the Milky Way. Night Mode turns the screen red, which is the standard trick for keeping your eyes adapted to faint objects when you are working in the dark.

Planning a session and keeping a record

The Tonight section is the practical starting point for an evening. It gathers what is visible in your sky, with Moon and Sun information, calendar curations, events and the deep sky and solar system objects that are best positioned at the time. Rather than building a list yourself, you get a shortlist to work from.

The Events Finder goes wider. It searches for astronomical events visible tonight and well into the future, generating listings of moon phases, eclipses, planetary moon events, meteor showers and planetary phenomena such as conjunctions, elongations and oppositions. Notifications have been reworked in version 7 so you can choose which events trigger an alert on the device.

For recording what you actually see, the observation tools cover planning, logging and organizing, with workflows for adding, searching, filtering and sorting entries. If you want that record to survive a lost phone or to be available on more than one device, the app offers optional backup to the developer's cloud storage, reachable through a web interface at LiveSky.com. Whether you use it is up to you; the point is that a season of observations does not have to live on a single handset.

Telescope control and the two shared-sky features

Telescope control is central to what this app is for, and version 7 adds support for ASCOM Alpaca and INDI. Those are control protocols rather than hardware, and the developer's claim is that they let the app connect to hundreds of compatible astronomical devices. If you already run a computer-controlled mount, this is the feature that justifies the price; if you observe with binoculars or unaided eyes, it is simply not part of your evening.

Two features push the app toward company. OneSky shows what other users are observing in real time, highlighting those objects on the chart and marking how many people are looking at each one. SkyCast lets you lead a friend or a group around the night sky through their own copies of SkySafari: you start a session, generate a link, and share it by message, another app or a social account.

Both depend on other people having the app and, in SkyCast's case, on the link reaching them. That is a narrower use case than the solo stargazing the rest of the app supports, but for a club night or a family session it is a neat way to keep everyone looking at the same object.

What it costs and what it asks of you

The app is a paid download at $17.99, with no ads, and it also offers in-app purchases. Version 7 makes earlier add-ons free, among them the H-R diagram, the 3D Galaxy view, and the PGC and GAIA catalogs. Anyone who bought those previously gets them here without paying again.

The requirements are worth weighing before you buy. Version 7 is built for recent Android versions. Telescope control needs compatible equipment and one of the supported protocols, and the shared features need other SkySafari users to be worthwhile. Cloud backup is optional, which means the app works without it but your observing data then lives wherever you keep it.

There is also a learning curve implied by the breadth on offer: simulation, event search, logging, telescope linking and several viewing modes are a lot of surface area. The developer describes this as an app for serious amateur astronomers, and the depth of the toolset fits that description more than it fits someone who wants to identify a bright object once in a while.

A reference tool for people who observe regularly

The clearest fit is someone who observes often enough to plan ahead and keep notes. If you want a shortlist of what is well placed tonight, a way to log what you saw, and a chart that keeps up as you sweep the sky, the combination here covers all three without leaving the app.

The second fit is the telescope owner. Support for ASCOM Alpaca and INDI is the kind of thing that matters to people running a computer-controlled mount, and it is the sort of capability that separates a serious chart from a casual one. The developer's claim of compatibility with hundreds of devices is the number to check against your own equipment before committing.

The third, smaller fit is the group organizer. OneSky and SkyCast are built for sharing a night sky with others who also use the app, which suits a club outing or a session with friends who are already set up with it. None of these are casual-use cases, and the price reflects that.

A considered purchase for committed observers

At $17.99 with no ads, SkySafari 7 Pro is priced like a tool rather than a pastime, and it behaves like one. The live chart, the long-range simulation, the event search, the logging workflows and the telescope protocols add up to something you grow into over a season rather than something you dip into.

My view is that it earns its cost for people who observe regularly, own a controllable telescope, or run sessions for others. The version 7 additions — the Events Finder, the reworked notifications, the newer control protocols and the previously paid catalogs now included — make the current release the one to buy if you are buying at all. If your interest is occasional, the free end of the astronomy market will cover a surprising amount of it, and the depth here will sit unused.

What's new in version 7.6.5.4

Fixed issue that occurred when saving an image with SmartEye