Software Alternatives & Reviews

Sky Map VS Space Engine

Compare Sky Map VS Space Engine and see what are their differences

Sky Map logo Sky Map

Sky Map (formerly the Google Sky Map) turns your Android-powered mobile phone into a window on the...

Space Engine logo Space Engine

Space Engine is a realistic virtual Universe you can explore on your computer.
  • Sky Map Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-05
  • Space Engine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-13

Sky Map videos

Google Sky Map

More videos:

  • Review - Google Sky Map App Review
  • Review - Google Sky Maps for Android Review

Space Engine videos

Why You Should Try Space Engine (The Best Damn Space Sim in the Galaxy)

More videos:

  • Review - Space Engine - Seamlessly Explore The Entire Universe
  • Review - Space Engine - What Can I Find In 10 Minutes?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Sky Map and Space Engine)
Education & Reference
83 83%
17% 17
Space Simulator
29 29%
71% 71
Maps & Navigation
100 100%
0% 0
Virtual Universe
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Sky Map and Space Engine. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Space Engine seems to be a lot more popular than Sky Map. While we know about 122 links to Space Engine, we've tracked only 5 mentions of Sky Map. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Sky Map mentions (5)

  • My Toddler Loves Planes, So I Built Her a Radar
    > All the UIs we have for sky-watching now have moved away from that Check out [SkyMap](https://github.com/sky-map-team/stardroid)! - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • two stars in the night
    Even better, it's open source now! Https://github.com/sky-map-team/stardroid. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Google Unveils Bard, Its Answer to ChatGPT
    Well, also there's security and maintenance issues from too many projects like that... Like just keeping shit the same with every new browser... I do think when they do close something, they should still let it calve off into open source land... Such as skymap which is cool: Https://github.com/sky-map-team/stardroid. Source: about 1 year ago
  • GitHub - sky-map-team/stardroid: Sky Map (formerly Google Sky Map, open sourced in 2012)
    FYI, That 2012 article links to the old code.google.com repo that redirects to the post's link https://github.com/sky-map-team/stardroid. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Night Sky Map and Planets Visible Tonight
    Try Sky Map app. It's fun to go on a walk when the sky is clear and identify constellations and planets. It was originally made by Google, then open sourced in 2012. https://github.com/sky-map-team/stardroid. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago

Space Engine mentions (122)

  • I'm trying to make a basic political borders map of a galaxy that's not the milky way
    I mean, there are plenty of good deep sky images out there. Try looking at the New General Catalogue (NGC) objects for something that strikes your fancy. Alternatively, you could cruise around in Space Engine and bookmark an interesting galaxy to get screenshots from multiple angles, which is what I usually do. (SE is available on Steam for a reasonable price.). Source: 9 months ago
  • Asteroid's Near Miss of Earth Undetected for 2 Days
    Computer says yes: https://gravitysimulator.org/ https://spaceengine.org/ Once the mass, velocity, heading of an object is known it becomes easier to track and fine tune parameters meaning time of intersect with earth can be calculated which gives orientation of planet and entry attitude. An exact street addres | sub metre grid reference is a big ask, but the "line of breakup" arcing across a narrow slice of the... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Infinite Photorealistic Worlds Using Procedural Generation
    Space Engine[1] is another popular one [1] https://spaceengine.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Galaxy/Universe Creator/Generator
    This is a bit of a tall order. There are none that I know of; most folks I know who do galaxy maps either make them by hand with their digital paint tools of choice, or utilize the procedurally-generated ones from Space Engine. Up until recently SE had a free (old) version available on the site; you should still be able to find a mirror of it somewhere but I don't know of one personally. Otherwise, SE is available... Source: 11 months ago
  • The true overlords
    Numbers as overwhelming as these are meaningless to our little minds. Then, do yourself a favor. Download Space Engine and see for yourself what it's like to visually behold the mindblowing immensity we are talking about. Now, take into account Multiverses, and consider the possibility that all those Universes may be fractal-like with n-infinite dimensions. Contemplate that we probably know absolutely nothing... Source: 12 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Sky Map and Space Engine, you can also consider the following products

SkyView - SkyView is powerful, easy-to-use app that answers questions about stars, constellations, and more.

Celestia - Real-time 3D visualization of space

Stellarium - Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer.

Star Walk - Star Walk – Sky View: Explore the Stars.

Universe Sandbox - Universe Sandbox ² is a physics-based space simulator where you can simulate Events and even break physics and friction with certain features.

SkySafari - SkySafari is a powerful planetarium that fits in your pocket.