Still Dark vs The Photographer's Ephemeris (TPE)

The short answer

Pick TPE if terrain and line-of-sight analysis matter most, for example whether the Moon clears a ridge 50 miles away. TPE Web is very strong at this on a desktop.
Pick Still Dark if you want one app on your phone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch that also covers the night sky: a planetarium, Milky Way night scores, meteor showers, satellite passes and camera calculators, with most of it free.
Both show rise and set directions on a map, find alignments, and cover eclipses and weather forecasts.

Side by side

	Still Dark	The Photographer's Ephemeris
Devices	One app for iPhone, iPad, Mac (native Mac app) and Apple Watch, plus widgets. An Android version is in the works and coming soon.	TPE for iPhone and iPad, TPE 3D for iPhone and iPad, and TPE Web for desktop and tablet (not phones). The Android app was retired in 2021.
iPhone Duo (foldable)	Yes. Unfolded, it uses the full iPad layout, with the controls in the side strip.	Not mentioned in the TPE App Store listings or website
Apple Watch app	Yes	No. The App Store lists iPhone and iPad only.
Price (US)	Most of the app is free: everything for today, at any place. Pro: $7.99 a month or $34.99 a year (7-day free trial), or Lifetime $99.99 once.	TPE iOS $9.99, with optional Skyfire colour forecasts from $9.99 per 3 months. TPE 3D $11.99. TPE Web has a free tier and Supporter, PRO and MAX plans (launch prices $9.99, $29.99 and $49.99 a year; prices vary by region). Each is bought separately.
Sun and Moon rise, set and direction on a map	Yes	Yes
Sun and Moon basics without paying	Yes, free: sunrise, sunset, golden and blue hour, every twilight, and detailed Sun and Moon information for today at any place	TPE for iPhone and iPad is a paid app ($9.99). TPE Web has a free tier, on desktop and tablet only.
Objects on the planner map	The Sun, Moon, planets, the ISS and other satellites, comets, meteor shower radiants and aurora	The Sun, Moon and galactic center on iOS. Planets, stars and deep-sky objects on TPE Web.
Shadows	The Sun and Moon shadow of an object of any height, on the compass and the map	Shadow lengths on the map
Moon phases	Phase, illumination, age, the next four phases, and a Moon Atlas	Phase and illumination, apogee and perigee
Find dates for an alignment	Yes (Find)	Yes (visual Sun and Moon search)
Line of sight and terrain	Distance and elevation angle to a pin, an elevation profile of the ground between you and the pin that shows where terrain blocks the sightline, and a terrain skyline in Find	Line-of-sight analysis on iOS. TPE Web adds viewshed and horizon profiles up to about 186 miles (MAX), hillshade and terrain shadows.
Measure on the map	Distance and area	Distance, bearing and elevation angle between two points
3D	3D terrain coming soon	TPE 3D app (needs internet). TPE Web 3D: basic free, shaded terrain on PRO, Google photorealistic 3D on MAX.
Milky Way	Core rise and position, plus a score for each of the next 45 nights	Galactic Center position and a Milky Way overlay. Visibility calendars on TPE Web.
Planetarium	360° sky with up to 8 million stars and 13,000+ deep-sky objects. AR on iPhone shows every one of those objects over the real sky, with search.	Stars and asterisms overlay and AR view on iOS. Planets, stars and deep-sky lists on TPE Web.
Camera tools	Star exposure (NPF and 500 rule), star trails, focus and depth of field, hyperfocal distance, field of view, equivalent exposure, ND filter and time-lapse. Plus settings for the Milky Way, Moon, Sun, meteors and eclipses: how many frames to stack, panoramas, Moon and Sun size in the frame, and eclipse exposures (Pro).	Field-of-view overlay and a camera and lens list on TPE Web
Weather forecasts	A regular forecast plus cloud by layer (low, mid, high), smoke, transparency and dew point, from two providers, Apple Weather and Open-Meteo. More providers are coming soon. Tonight's dark window, from the forecast, with a score (Pro).	TPE Web: cloud by level, visibility, transparency, seeing and smoke. TPE iOS: Skyfire sunrise and sunset colour forecasts (paid).
Light pollution	A dark-sky map of the whole world, colored by Bortle class, plus a light-pollution estimate for the place you pick. Free.	Light-pollution map overlay on iOS and TPE Web
Sky events	Meteor showers, eclipses, conjunctions, ISS, Tiangong, Hubble and Starlink passes	Moon phases, apogee and perigee, solstices, equinoxes and eclipses. We found no satellite passes.
Offline	Positions and star catalogues are on the device. Map imagery needs a connection.	TPE iOS calculates offline and has two offline map types. TPE 3D needs internet.

Also in Still Dark

Moon Atlas. A Moon globe with 2,023 named seas, craters, mountains and landing sites.
Solar System. The planets on their orbits in 3D, with a time machine to move through the years.
Day and night map. Where it's day, night and twilight on Earth, on a flat map or a globe, with a time-lapse of Earth's rotation.
The ISS live. The space station's position, live, around a 3D globe.
Sun and Moon compass in 2D and 3D, with shadows.
Aurora forecast from NOAA, with the chance of seeing it from your latitude.
Tonight's dark window. When it will be properly dark with the Moon down, checked against the forecast and given a score.
Hide what you don't use. Cards, map layers and panels can be turned off, so the app shows only what you want.

We didn't find a Moon atlas, a 3D Solar System, a live ISS globe, satellite passes, comets or aurora in TPE's feature lists. TPE Web does have a day, night and twilight map overlay.

Where TPE is better

Terrain analysis and 3D. Viewsheds, horizon profiles over long distances, hillshade, 3D terrain and 3D buildings on TPE Web go further than anything in Still Dark.
Desktop planning in a browser. TPE Web runs on any desktop or laptop, including Windows.
Sunrise and sunset colour forecasts with Skyfire on iOS.
A long record. It has been used by landscape photographers since 2009.

Where Still Dark is better

One app instead of three. The same plans on iPhone, iPad, a native Mac app and Apple Watch, with one purchase. Most of it is free.
iPhone Duo support. Unfold it and you get the full iPad layout.
Android coming soon. TPE retired its Android app in 2021. Still Dark for Android is in the works.
Free on your phone. Sunrise, sunset, golden hour, twilight and detailed Sun and Moon information for today, at any place, cost nothing.
More on the map. Planets, the ISS and other satellites, comets, meteor radiants and aurora, as well as the Sun and Moon.
The night sky. A full planetarium, Milky Way night scores, meteor showers, conjunctions and satellite passes.
Camera calculators. Star exposure (NPF and 500 rule), star trails, depth of field, hyperfocal, field of view, equivalent exposure, ND filter and time-lapse, plus settings for the Milky Way, Moon, Sun, meteors and eclipses.
Works on your phone in the field, including the forecast. TPE Web can't be used on phones.

Which should you get?

If you mostly shoot landscapes at sunrise and sunset and want the deepest terrain tools, TPE Web on a desktop is hard to beat. If you shoot at night as much as by day, and want one app on your phone and Mac, try Still Dark. It's free for today's sky at any place.

Sources

We checked these on October 8, 2026: the TPE App Store listing, the TPE 3D App Store listing, the TPE Web 4.0 launch page, What's new in 4.8, TPE's Android page and About TPE. Prices and features change. If something here is out of date, please tell us at hello@stilldark.app and we'll fix it.

The Photographer's Ephemeris is a product of Crookneck Consulting LLC (Photo Ephemeris). Still Dark isn't affiliated with or endorsed by it. Product names belong to their owners.