SkySafari 3 Is Now Fully iOS 6 And iPhone 5-Optimized
October 4, 2012
If you're an avid stargazer, then you likely already know that SkySafari 3 Plus and Pro as well as the similarly featured Star Walk were optimized for your iPhone 5 in late September. Now, less than a week later, owners of the standard SkySafari 3 have full compatibility with Apple's latest handhelds and mobile OS, plus a couple of new additions.
Of course, a bigger screen is perfect for an any astronomy app. Who wouldn't want to see more stars, bigger close-ups, and so on, right? In addition, since this is still a Retina display, everything appears just as stunning.
Beyond expanding compatibility and optimization, SkySafari v3.6 includes the entire Hipparcos catalog of 120,000 stars and the Night Sky Network calendar. Available within the Help menu, the Night Sky Network listings are displayed by tapping the appropriately named Local Astronomy Events option. Even more convenient than the NSN web site, this list is filtered to only show nearby astronomy club meetings, parties, and presentations.
Speaking of events, we can't forget about the Moon map, which allows you to see effects of an eclipse, and other v3.5 features.
Before sending you off, here are the few maintenance notes of v3.6:
- Fixed problem that made the screen occasionally go blank, with a coordinate display of NaN, NaN in the upper left corner.
- Fixed problem importing satellite orbit files containing corrupted lines. SkySafari now just skips the corrupted lines, and reads the rest of the file.
- Fixed rare bug where the app would sometimes draw stars and constellations on top of an opaque horizon.
- Tapping to select stars now works better. Fixed problem with selecting small nebula symbols on a high-resolution display.