SkySafari 3 Features

The following features are shared by all three versions of SkySafari 3:

• Precision Graphics - SkySafari accurately shows the sky from any location on Earth, at any time up to 100 years in the past or future. And SkySafari Plus and Pro are precise astronomical calculators, computing the positions of solar system objects to sub-arcsecond precision with the latest JPL planetary ephemerides.

• Compass & Gyro Support - If you have an iPhone/iPad with a compass, or an iPod Touch with a gyroscope, SkySafari can help you identify stars and planets by holding your phone next to them. Tap the Compass/Gyro button (or shake your phone) to activate the compass - now, as you move the phone around, the sky chart follows your motion. Search for any object in the sky, and follow the arrow on screen to find it!

• Educational Content - SkySafari is a complete astronomy handbook that fits in your pocket! It contains hundreds of images from NASA space missions, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the world's foremost amateur and professional astro-photographers. It provides extensive on-line help, including an illustrated guide to basic astronomical concepts. Unlike other stargazing apps, which just give you Wikipedia links, our object descriptions are carefully researched and fact-checked - and you can use them anywhere, without needing internet access!

• SkyWeek - SkySafari 3 includes SkyWeek - the mobile version of Sky & Telescope Magazine's super-popular "Sky at a Glance" column. SkyWeek features interactive sky charts for each day of the week, and links to more articles on S&T's website. SkyWeek shows you all major sky events: eclipses, conjunctions, good meteor showers — miss nothing!

• Night Vision - SkySafari 3 has a "Night" button to preserve your dark adaptation as you're exploring the night sky.

• Time Flow - The Time Flow feature lets you animate the night sky using simple VCR controls - follow the motion of the stars and planets as SkySafari compresses days, months, and years into a few seconds.

• Customizable Horizon - You can select from a simple transparent, translucen, or opqaue horizon, or you can choose a phot-realistic horizon panorama. If you're handy with photshop, you can even create and import a horizon panorama of your own backyard! You can show and hide daylight, and enjoy colorful sunsets with realistic horizon and sun glow effects.

Animate gorgeous sunsets with interchangeable
horizon panoramas and natural skyglow effects.
You can even add your own backyard!

SkySafari is the only iOS app which correctly
reproduces both solar and lunar eclipses.

SkySafari gives you more than facts and figures.
You also get history, mythology, science...

... and a built-in gallery with hundreds of images
from NASA, and the world's top astro-photographers.

Telescope Control

SkySafari Plus and Pro can control the following GoTo telescopes, using either a wired serial connection, or wirelessly - using the Wi-Fi capability built into your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch.

• Meade LX-200 Classic and GPS
• Meade LX-90, ETX, LXD, LX-400 ACF with AutoStar #497 controllers
• Meade Magellan I and II
• Celestron Ultima 2000
• Celestron NexStar 4/5/8, 5i/8i, GPS, SLT, SE
• Celestron CG5, CGE, CGEM, CPC
• Orion Sirius, Atlas, SkyView Pro, SkyQuest XTg
• SkyWatcher mounts with SynScan controllers
• iOptron SmartStar/MiniTower mounts with GOTONova controllers
• Takahashi Temma 2
• Vixen StarBook (see note below)
• StellarCAT ServoCAT, Wildcard Argo Navis, Sky Commander, Losmandy DSC
• Astro-Physics GTO, Losmandy Gemini, Vixen SkySensor 2000
• Tangent Instruments BBox, JMI NGC-MAX, Celestron AstroMaster, Lumicon SkyVector, Takahashi Super Navigator, Dave Ek Box
• Orion Intelliscope, Orion SkyWizard

To control your telescope, you will also need a hardware solution to relay commands from your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch to the serial port on your telescope. Southern Stars offers two such solutions:

• SkyWire - the world's first Apple-approved serial accessory for plug-and-play wired telescope communication.
• SkyFi - for wireless telescope control in the field, using the Wi-Fi capability built into your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch.

Vixen StarBook users please note:The Vixen StarBook controller uses an ethernet interface, which is also physically incompatible with SkyFi. However, you can use an Apple AirPort Express (or other wireless router) to control the StarBook from SkySafari. This document from Vixen explains how.

The telescope control interface with Night Vision turned on.
Compare to the image at bottom right of this page.

SkySafari Pro's Moon map has 8x the resolution of any
other version. Every named surface feature is labelled!

With over 740,000 galaxies in SkySafari Pro's database,
you can chart the Virgo Cluster to 18th magnitude!

Plan and record your observations, and share them
with friends, using customizable SkySafari observing lists.

SkySafari Pro includes over 580,000 solar system objects, including every asteroid
and comet ever discovered. Follow them along the Ecliptic (yellow line) through the sky.

A rare double shadow transit of Jupiter's moons Io
and Ganymede (off screen), computed correctly by
SkySafari, including light travel time from Jupiter!

The Moon passes through the Pleiades star cluster (M 45),
with the telescope controls turned on.

Orbit the planets with SkySafari Plus and Pro.
Tour Saturn's moons like the Cassini probe!