SkySafari 6 Plus

Simulation Curriculum Corp.

In-app purchases

About this app

SkySafari 6 Plus goes beyond most basic astronomy star map apps by providing you with a full-featured space simulator and telescope control.

Note that there is no discount upgrade path from SkySafari 6 Plus to SkySafari 6 Pro. Choose carefully!

Here's what's new in version 6:

1) Clouds and Astronomy. Two words that rarely go together. Rewritten from the ground up, SkySafari 6 Plus will (optionally) back up all of your observing data in our secure cloud storage and make it easily accessible to multiple devices as well as from our new web interface, LiveSky.com

2) We Have The Best Stars. Precise, modern and deep. We’ve updated our star catalog to use the latest and greatest, UCAC5 star catalog.

3) We Have The Best Galaxies. The PGC catalog includes galaxies down to 18th magnitude.

4) Observers First. A redesign of our tools puts the active observer first. Quick access to features like your equipment, observing sites, lists, and observations make it easy and enjoyable to get out, observe, and record your observations.

5) Graph It. The completely new graph tool will give a quick visual representation of an object’s altitude above the horizon. Essential for planning your night’s observations.

6) Plan It. Make the most of your time under the stars. Our updated planner is a powerful tool that lets you create a list of targets for your observing session with filters like object types, specific time ranges, constellation, catalog, and more. Plan it and get more done.

7) Tilt It. Every old astronomy app these days lets your tilt and pan your device to show different parts of the sky, but who else lets you control your telescope that way!? “Tilt to slew” is an optional mode allowing you to keep your eye in the eyepiece, and, using the accelerometers in your device, gently translate the movements of your hands into smooth telescope motion.

8) Share It. SkySafari 6 is more than just a mobile sky map app, it’s a new system to help organize and share your observing experiences. With a free signup, you can see and share your observing data from our web portal, LiveSky.com! Affordable premium memberships add online editing, so you can not only view, but edit your observations, add new observing sites, manage your equipment and more. Finally, you can view, edit and manage your settings files with SkySafari Web, our fully functional web version.

For even more features, and a gigantic database aimed at the most dedicated amateur or professional astronomer, check out SkySafari 6 Pro!

Ratings and reviews

I have been using this version (6 Plus) for several years now with an OnStar controller for my telescope connected via BT and never had any issues. The app features are fantastic and well developed, however, I last used this app on 9/3/23 and after the latest update for this package on 9/8/23 to 'fix' a scope connection issue the app has refused to connect with any scope either on BT or Wifi since. I suspect this was deliberate move introduced by Marketing dept to force users to the new V7.

Nice sky atlas, and the Bluetooth serial link provides an accessible interface to most telescopes for push-to / go-to operation. The ability to search and create observation lists is nice, but difficult to filter output by multiple criteria. I really like the ability to simulate things forward or backward from different geographic locations, and the ability to create custom backdrops for your particular location.

Absolutely worth it for the ability to flip the starmap so that it matches what you see on a reflector telescope. Then you add the extra stars that are not in the free version and star hopping is made so much easier! Not to mention you can add your specific equipment and it will calculate and cast a circle on the map so that it matches what you see in your scope perfectly.

What's new

Fix for periodic crash on telescope connection.