Stellarium review: my favourite astronomy app of all time
Where does it rank on our leaderboard
| Rank | Software | Stars for Your Buck | Recorded UK price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stellarium | 100 out of 100 | Free |
| 2 | NINA | 98 out of 100 | Free |
| 4 | GraXpert | 96 out of 100 | Free |
| 8 | NoiseXTerminator | 92 out of 100 | £45 |
| 10 | Siril | 88 out of 100 | Free |
| 13 | RegiStax | 77 out of 100 | Free |
| 14 | PixInsight | 76 out of 100 | €300 |
| 15 | DeepSkyStacker | 71 out of 100 | Free |
| 16 | Adobe Photoshop | 67 out of 100 | £22 |
Contents
- 01 Where does it rank on our leaderboard
- 02 Specifications and features
- 03 A walk through Stellarium
- 04 Should you buy it?
- 05 Questions and more about this review
In 30 seconds
Stars for Your Buck 100/100
Written 2 Oct 2026 Updated 2 Oct 2026
- Rank
- #1 of 16 software
- Verdict
- Damon's pick
Written by Damon Scotting 3 min read
Buy it if
- You plan imaging sessions and want to frame targets with your own camera and telescope.
- You want to know when a target will clear the trees and houses around you.
- You travel to dark skies and want to see exactly when and where everything will be.
Skip it if
- You only want a phone app: the mobile version is more limited and needs a paid plan to get the most from it.
“Stellarium is my favourite astronomy app of all time. It is the GOAT. Over the years I must have spent two or three weeks of my life in it, exploring the sky and planning sessions, and I still use it three or four times a week, mostly to frame targets with different camera and telescope combinations. My biggest improvement recently was adding a panorama I shot from my imaging spot and lining it up in the app, so I can see in advance when a target will clear the trees and houses around me. That saves me an enormous amount of time. It is also brilliant for planning comet shots, and before any stargazing trip I set it to where I am going so it shows exactly when and where everything will be. The mobile app is more limited and needs a paid plan to get the most from it. But the desktop version could charge £49 a year and I would still think it a fair price for how much I rely on it. It is free, it is wonderful, and it is a great way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.”
Specifications and features
Against the software I have reviewed
Compare with
| Stellarium reviewed #1 of 16 | ASIAIR app #9 of 16 | NINA #2 of 16 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recorded UK price | Free | Free | Free |
| Stars for Your Buck | 100/100 | 89/100 | 98/100 |
| Made by | The Stellarium developers (an open-source project) | ZWO (Suzhou, China) | Stefan Berg and the N.I.N.A. contributors |
| What it is for | A planetarium for planning sessions and framing targets: the sky from any place, at any time | Remote control of an ASIAIR controller and the whole imaging rig, from a phone or tablet | Equipment control and automated imaging sequences |
| Licence | Free and open source (GNU GPL 2.0) | Free app; needs an ASIAIR controller (ASIAIR Plus 256G $399, ASIAIR Mini $249 on ZWO's store) | Free and open source (Mozilla Public License 2.0) |
| Operating systems | Windows 10 or later (Qt 5 build: Windows 7 or later), macOS 12 or later (Qt 5 build: macOS 10.13 or later), Linux; 64 bit | iOS 13 or later (iPhone and iPad), Android, macOS 11 or later on Apple silicon | Windows 10 (64 bit) or later |
| Current version | 26.3 (28 Sep 2026) | 3.0 (29 Jul 2026) | 3.2 |
| Requirements | OpenGL 2.1 graphics, 1 GiB of memory, 1 GiB of disk space | An ASIAIR controller | 3 GB of memory, a dual-core x64 processor |
| Camera and telescope framing | Yes: ocular, sensor and telescope simulation | Yes: the sky atlas draws the camera field | Yes: the Framing Assistant |
| Custom horizon | Yes: custom landscapes | not recorded | not recorded |
| Telescope control | Yes | Yes: popular equatorial mounts | Yes: full equipment control |
| Catalogues | Over 600,000 stars and over 80,000 deep-sky objects by default, with optional catalogues of millions more stars | not recorded | not recorded |
A walk through Stellarium
Zoom to a target Zoom in on any target, here the Andromeda Galaxy, to see how it sits among the surrounding stars before you frame it.
Should you buy it?
100/100 Stars for Your Buck
Pros
- Frames targets with different camera and telescope combinations, which is what I use it for three or four times a week.
- A panorama of your own horizon, lined up in the app, shows in advance when a target will clear the trees and houses.
- Brilliant for planning comet shots.
- Set it to wherever you are going and it shows exactly when and where everything will be.
- The desktop version is free, and I would think it fair at £49 a year.
Cons
- The mobile app is a separate, more limited product, and getting the most from it needs a paid plan.
Stellarium is my favourite astronomy app of all time.
Two alternatives I have reviewed
- ASIAIR app Its sky atlas frames a target with your camera field, then sends the mount there 89/100 Free Read the review
- NINA Its framing assistant plans a target before a night of imaging; free, on Windows 98/100 Free Read the review
Questions and more about this review
Reviewed by
Damon Scotting
The Telescope Man Verified
BSc (Hons) Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology, Loughborough University PGCE / QTS, University of Nottingham
About Damon About Damon Damon Scotting is The Telescope Man. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology from Loughborough University and a PGCE with QTS from the University of Nottingham, and taught physics in secondary schools before becoming an astronomy creator. He is a contributing writer for BBC Sky at Night Magazine and the author of 42 Wonders of Our Night Sky, and his photograph of the galaxy M100 with the dwarf planet Ceres was Highly Commended in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2024 competition run by Royal Observatory Greenwich. He has appeared on the BBC's Blue Peter. More than 750,000 people follow his astronomy channels on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and he has reviewed more than 140 telescopes, mounts, cameras, filters and accessories hands-on for this site. More about Damon · How I test · Damon's book
I review all kinds of gear: most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way. How this site is funded
Seven questions, answered
Questions about the Stellarium
Written 2 October 2026 ·Updated 2 October 2026
I review all kinds of gear. Most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way: no company sees or approves a review before it is published. How this site is funded
- Is Stellarium free? Yes. The desktop program is free and open source, under the GNU GPL 2.0 licence. The mobile app is a separate product, and it needs a paid plan to get the most from it. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
- Which computers does it run on? Windows 10 or later (a Qt 5 build still runs on Windows 7 or later), macOS 12 or later (a Qt 5 build runs on macOS 10.13 or later) and Linux, all 64 bit. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
- What does it need? A 64-bit system with a graphics card that supports OpenGL 2.1, 1 GiB of memory and 1 GiB of disk space. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
- Can it show my camera and telescope field of view? Yes. Its ocular simulation draws the field of the camera and telescope you set up, which is how I frame targets before a session. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
- Can it show my own horizon? Yes. It takes custom landscapes, so a panorama of your own horizon shows when a target will clear the trees and houses around you. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
- Which version is current? Version 26.3, released on 28 September 2026. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
- What have I not tested on the Stellarium? This page covers the desktop program; the mobile app is a separate product and is not reviewed here.