SkySafari is a very popular astronomy app for the Mac. It was first released for iOS some time ago, but now the Mac is lucky enough to have three versions of this incredible tool that puts the sky on your screen.
In SkySafari, you start viewing the skies from a location of your choosing on Earth. You can see the horizon and pan the image the full 360 degrees and up and down. You can interact with most celestial bodies by right-clicking on them. For example, if you right-click on the Sun, you will be able to center it on the screen, bring up information about it and flip and move the image related to it.
Navigating the skies using your mouse and seeing every celestial body on your computer screen is a great feeling. There is a search field that can be used to search for specific bodies when you can't find them by panning and zooming.
There is information about a lot of celestial bodies. The amount of data available to the end-user is incredible. The information includes discovery of the body, mythology, coordinates, basic information, and any other relevant information.
I used this app a few days ago to follow the movement of the moon moments before a solar eclipse. Knowing what was happening up in the skies made me enjoy the eclipse much more.
In conclusion, this is a great application and it is totally worth the 5 dollars that it costs, moreover, it is currently free for a limited time.
Pros
- 360 degrees pan option
- Detailed celestial data
- Advanced export options
- Lots of celestial bodies
- Horizon view
Cons
- Slow loading in the pan mode
Beautifully crafted application. It is possible to enjoy it from different angles: just as a visual feast or in a more deep manner. It has a lot of information about celestial bodies and it is very easy to spend many hours with it.