What’s better Stellarium or Skyportal/Skysafari?

[StarDuke82]

I have been using Skyportal Celestron’s free version of Skysafari to control my Celestron 9.25 SCT, 6 inch Astrofi and find target my 8 inch Newtonian for almost a year now. I like Skyportal and find it fairly easy to use with a good list of targets but I keep seeing members mention Stellarium so I keep wondering which is better? The Apps look and seem very similar in the App Store; I guess what I am asking is should I ditch Skyportal and switch to Stellarium?

[Knighty2112]

Skyportal is a very slimmed down version of Skysafari which is made by the same people for Celestron. I have Skyportal but never use it. I do however use Skysafari Pro both for  a guide when out at my scopes, or when I am connecting up via goto too with Skysafari Pro. Stellarium is very good too, but I tend to rarely use it and favour Skysafari which I have on both my iphone and ipad. It does come up on offer quite regularly so keep any eye out for it and you could nab it cheaper.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Knighty2112

[Stu]

From reading forum comments it seems these are all fairly personal choices; preferences vary depending on how people respond to the different interfaces and designs.

Personally I prefer SkySafari and use 7 Pro, but all the recent versions are decent, if 6 Plus is available more cheaply then I’m sure that would still be a big step up from Skyportal.

[Starfazed]

I get the impression Skysafari has extra bells and whistles around social media though I'm not that interested to know if 25 other people are trying to find the same feint fuzzy galaxy as me.

 

So if not that, what if anything does one have that the other doesn't? Thinking in terms of mimicking eyepiece views, controlling GOTO scopes etc. At the moment Stellarium is cheaper but both require purchase to unlock advanced features and I cant find any list comparing the advanced feature of both head to head?.

 

[Zermelo]

I use Skysafari (Pro v7), and I'm not interesred in the social media stuff either.

Comparisons? There's this one from last year, but it's not at the level of a feature-by-feature shoot out.

This is a more detailed list of features for the Skysafari 7 Basic/Plus/Pro, which you could compare against a list for Stellarium Mobile/Plus (e.g. here or here)

[StarDuke82]

I have been wanting to take the skysafari plunge for awhile but didn’t know if it was worth the cost but you all have talked me into it, also I downloaded the free version of stellarium and compared the main difference is stellarium has a daytime view and night view and can fast forward to the evenings view which I kinda liked about the app. 

[happy-kat]

The OP mentions app store, stellarium mobile as far as I know and on my android stellarium app does not connect to a mount. I use skysafari plus and connect to my telescope mount and ZWO astro camera.

[StarDuke82]

Just now, happy-kat said:

The OP mentions app store, stellarium mobile as far as I know and on my android stellarium app does not connect to a mount. I use skysafari plus and connect to my telescope mount and ZWO astro camera.

Well the free version doesn’t but according to the paid version it will connect via wifi or bluetooth. 

[happy-kat]

I've got the paid mobile version. Maybe my version wasn't entitled to that update

Edited June 12, 2023 by happy-kat

[StarDuke82]

1 minute ago, happy-kat said:

I've got the paid version. Maybe my version wasn't entitled to that update

It’s certain scopes Nexstar, Synscan and LX200 protocals I just double checked my mistake 

[inedible_hulk]

I use both the mobile and desktop versions of SkySafari Pro, though I’m still on v.4 despite numerous hardware and os upgrades and updates. It is very user configurable and has been worth every penny I spent. As previously mentioned, look out for the not infrequent offers.

[DaveS]

Just to throw a grenade into the discussion, I find Cartes du Ciel best for telescope control, but it doesn't have a pretty desktop. For planning a session I use Stellarium on my desktop computer.

[tomato]

2 hours ago, DaveS said:

Just to throw a grenade into the discussion, I find Cartes du Ciel best for telescope control, but it doesn't have a pretty desktop. For planning a session I use Stellarium on my desktop computer.

Same here. Stellarium had a bolt on for telescope control when I first came across it but it wasn’t as straightforward to use as CDC so I use the latter for telescope control with NINA.

[jjohnson3803]

16 hours ago, StarDuke82 said:

I have been wanting to take the skysafari plunge for awhile but didn’t know if it was worth the cost but you all have talked me into it, also I downloaded the free version of stellarium and compared the main difference is stellarium has a daytime view and night view and can fast forward to the evenings view which I kinda liked about the app. 

As a longtime SS+ user, I find the time controls on Stellarium more convenient (on my phone at least).  I often hit the fast forward button by mistake on SS+ which takes me too far into the future too fast.  But I agree picking one over the other is probably more a matter of taste than functionality.  I don't use several features of SS+ like social media, orbit, or galaxy functions.

 

[AstroMuni]

To add another grenade 🙂 ...if you are a Mac/Linux/RPi user you could use Kstars/Ekos for planning and control. If you are a windows user you could use it for planning. You can tailor the planetarium to look plain or add the full DSS map view.

 

 

[ED Splitter]

I use SkySafari purely for information and reference. I am a visual observer only and have manual mount. I think it’s a great tool that compliments star charts well. 
In terms of giving you an idea of what you would see through an eyepiece, you can set up a custom FOV based on your own calculation or via a list of equipment which is useful. But it won’t give you an idea of the experience etc. by way of example a 13mm ethos has same FOV as a 19mm panoptic but they give very different experiences in terms of magnification, exit pupil brightness and overall experience of viewing.  
important to note that we value things in a strange manner. This is by no means a cheap hobby no matter your particular sub interest within it. Apps are one of the cheapest investments you can make and can greatly enhance your overall experience of those rather more expensive items.  

[Pixies]

One of the great advantages of the plus and Pro versions are the observation features. You can create your own observation lists, use the inbuilt ones or downloads. Use these to plan your session. Also record the sessions and observations. I can click on an object and then review all past recorded observations,.

[jjohnson3803]

As I was drawing up a potential target list of open clusters yesterday, I was flipping pages in my Bright Star Atlas, Norton's, and Jumbo Pocket atlas.  Then it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't have to flip anything if I used SS+ on my iPad - zoom in, zoom out, pan around easy-peasy. 

I love collecting paper atlases, but...

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by jjohnson3803

[Zermelo]

55 minutes ago, jjohnson3803 said:

As I was drawing up a potential target list of open clusters yesterday, I was flipping pages in my Bright Star Atlas, Norton's, and Jumbo Pocket atlas.  Then it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't have to flip anything if I used SS+ on my iPad - zoom in, zoom out, pan around easy-peasy. 

I love collecting paper atlases, but...

 

And when planning, you can use the filter criteria in ways that would be difficult or impossible with a hard copy atlas.

I still love the paper maps and atlases but, when I realized what the planetarium software could do, I switched to them for planning and running my sessions.

[Vulisha]

Some time ago I purchased Stellarium app, and then they removed that app or what and basically canceled the app, and then rereleased it and I lost my purchase, assy move if you ask me. 

But I do not kind as I am more than happy with Sky Safari 6 Plus, it is great, i connect my telescopes to it( OnStep and Dwarf 2 using adapter app) it works as a charm, it has observing lists, object highlight fov indicators and loads of other stuff. Good mature app. 

Edited June 14, 2023 by Vulisha

[Spile]

I like Stellarium on my desktop pc,  SkySafari 7 on my iPad and SkEye on my Android phone.

[StarDuke82]

On 13/06/2023 at 14:24, ED Splitter said:

This is by no means a cheap hobby no matter your particular sub interest within it. Apps are one of the cheapest investments you can make and can greatly enhance your overall experience of those rather more expensive items.  

Oh believe me I have found that out quickly buying EP and filters over the last year so investing in an App is good idea I have just been on the fence because I didn’t know what SS+ offered, but from what I’ve read here it’s worth the investment.

[StarDuke82]

10 hours ago, Pixies said:

One of the great advantages of the plus and Pro versions are the observation features. You can create your own observation lists, use the inbuilt ones or downloads. Use these to plan your session. Also record the sessions and observations. I can click on an object and then review all past recorded observations,.

Being able to review all past recorded observations would be useful for rechecking the data I have been collecting on my observations. 

[StarDuke82]

1 hour ago, Spile said:

I like Stellarium on my desktop pc,  SkySafari 7 on my iPad and SkEye on my Android phone.

I’m using IOS so SkySafari is probably best and I believe that is what I will go with after I have read all the comments here. 

[PEMS]

Find Skysafari the best, but the Plus version only. Pro is just too much in number of objects most will be too small, or too far away.

THink Pro had something like 13 million stars. How many do you expect to look at?

Distant DSO objects will likely not visible without a 20" or bigger. Finally Plus is less cost, and will do all you ever need.