SkySafari 8 Pro

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1. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   GAIA downloaded, still capped at mag 15. The GAIA has been downloaded, star field FOV zoomed in, star magnitude set much dimmer than 15, Never Show Fainter Than set to Unlimited, no matter what no star fainter than 15 is displayed. I have SkySafari 6 Pro with no issue, 8 Pro simply does not work as advertised. Don’t know if it’s a bug or what, but this version is useless.

2. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Money trick. I pay twice but don’t work in my iPhone or iPad or Mac. For some reason is asking for buy more and more and more. In Celestrone software the same trouble.. double check what are you buying.

3. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   I paid for a subscription, but every time I get on it, ask again. I paid for a yearly subscription and every time I sign onto this app I am asked if I want to buy it again. I don’t know if I’m got the full version or not. Don’t look that away. If I don’t get it cleared up I’m gonna want my money back cause I’m not getting what I paid for.

4. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Sky safari 8 pro. I have a purchase receipt for pro 8, but received Pro7 app, I now have 2apps of Pro7. Trying to get a refund. I wish I never received the discount order email for Pro8

5. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Too expensive. £36 and then £50 annually additional subscription, no thanks.

6. ★★★★★crashes, freezes and errors

   Avoid if you use SkyWatcher SynScan. The recent update has broken the link between SkySafari and Skywatcher SynScan such that an alignment carried out in SynScan isn’t translated into SkySafari. As a result, there is a misalignment within the app between the selected object and where the app apparently thinks the telescope is pointing, even if the object is dead centre in the telescope’s field of view. This problem were apparent in the previous release.

7. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Just purchased. I’m a real fan of SkySafari Pro and I’ve used pro 7 for years. So, when I noticed pro 8 was available I was really excited. However, I have to say I’m very dissatisfied with the new version. It seems to have no updated features and unless you agree to a subscription there is no reason to upgrade if you already have access to previous versions. Sorry to be negative here but this my observations so far. I would be happy to be proved wrong….

8. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Loads of hidden fees. Loads of hidden fees

9. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   I tried to subscribe to premium for a year at the advertised 30% off but when I tried no discount?. No discount= no bueno

10. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Paywall!! WHY!?. I’m a little disappointed that some of the features they advertise are behind a paywall of $50/year. Unlike other softwares where they’re free and then to unlock premium stuff, the fee seems understandable. But when you’re already paying $40 after tax, to hide some really cool things that set them apart, you tack on a paywall that makes the upgrade more questionable. I’ve used SS since the beginning and have never been disappointed until this version sadly…..

11. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Disappointing. An expensive upgrade. Then as soon as opened wants an expensive subscription to unlock many of the features. Couldn’t recommend this at all.

12. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Missing some NGC objects. Have found some NGC objects are missing from this version. Example: NGC6144, the small globular cluster near Antares. It says not found when I do a search.

13. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Wish navigation worked better on Mac.. I know it’s designed as an iPad app, but it would be nice if pinch-zoom also worked with the trackpad on a MacBook Pro. The app is kind of pricey after all.

14. ★★★★★crashes, freezes and errors

    Good News / Bad News. The good news is that this app runs on both the iPad and the Mac with a single purchase. The bad news is that little effort was put into the MacOS version. Fundamental operations like zooming are broken unless you make changes to the application settings. For example pinch to zoom works great on the iPad screen, but doesn’t work via the trackpad on the Mac. Even the odd workarounds like Command + or - or two fingered scroll from the prior Mac OS version don’t work. Still no luck search in the help. Finally got some help on a user forum suggesting changing the “Tourch Alternatives” setting of the app. This at least make the app functional! Wouldn’t it be better if it just worked the first time it started up. Couldn’t the installation process make sure this absolutely necessary change for Mac OS? Couldn’t the zoom buttons be made visible by default on Mac OS? Even better why do I have to hold down a key in addition to making the zoom gesture? Other make apps that I use just make the zoom gesture work natively! It’s great that Apple lets the same app run on both the iPad and the Mac, but clearly a little more effort is required from the developers.

15. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Great program but nickel and dimes you for a subscription as well. I appreciate the program it is very useful but…they produce a program version that you pay for and each version is another fee and then they want you to get a subscription as well. I would not recommend just because of that. I’d happily pay a subscription for a program that updates. This is 8 pro. I’ll have to pay again for 9 in addition to a 50$ a year subscription? It honestly isn’t that good

16. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Southern hemisphere by. Mine seems to not work when properly when I switch to a city in the southern hemisphere. I checked my SkySafari 7 and it doesn’t have this issue.

17. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Your purchase does not give you a complete app, you still have to pay an $49+ annual fee for premium. I thought I was buying a premium software version, it turns out that premium costs you $49 annually.

18. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Great app, but v6 was better on MacOS. Sky Safari provides a great window into the night sky, with good maps of stars, and lots of information that is otherwise hard to find. For outreach work, where having ready info about objects in the night sky is important, Sky Safari was the best tool in the business. The maps were precise and beautifully rendered, and the info was on point and at the ready. This paradigm has changed with v8. Now it’s an iOS application, and the consequences of that change is that there is much less screen to display anything in. So the information has to compete with the maps; and some of the quiet helps that v6 provided are no longer available. The new plate solve feature may turn out to be a winner for people with certain types of smart telescopes. The moon (lunar) map has a nice improvement in the feature density display. While the visual aspect of the terminator is not well displayed (shadows near the terminator are very distinctive, and greatly help in identifying features), still the map is one of the better offerings available. If SkySafari 6 for Mac is still available, and you are running it on a laptop, then you might wish to avail yourself. Version 8 is still good, but has lost some of the delightful slickness that made it the best planetarium program in the world.

19. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Upgrade Failed Plate Solving. Paid FULL PRICE to Upgraded from 7 Pro for one reason ONLY and that was the promised Plate Solving feature. Interface and process was ok but failed to solve 9 out of 10 simple .fits, .prn and .jpg images. All these images solved on ASIAir and Nova Astronomy.net. TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, maybe the next version will get it right, but without my investment!

20. ★★★★★overall positive experience· unspecific

    Good Update, macOS support needs work.. Nice to have a native copy of SkySafari finally. It runs well with the section the gesture recognition in the main view with trackpad and a couple of visual glitches when night mode is enabled.

21. ★★★★★overall positive experience· unspecific

    Nice update but doesn’t work on my iPhone 8. My favourite new feature is the ability to import my astrophotos into the charts so it’s easy to ID all the stars and background objects. I bought this on my iPad but really intended to use it on my iPhone, but unfortunately I’ve found it doesn’t work on the iPhone 8… also my Mac is intel so it wont work on that either and, thanks to Apple, most of the space on my iPad is needed for system files - so it’s ended up being a bit of a waste of money for me unfortunately and I’ll have to stick to version 7. That’s not really the devs fault as my phone is old now but I can’t see a good reason why it wont work as version 7 runs fine.

22. ★★★★★overall positive experience· unspecific

    Must have app for Astrophotographers. This is my go to app for finding Astro imaging targets. It has the most comprehensive set of possible targets, including many obscure catalogues. A must have in my opinion.

23. ★★★★★overall positive experience· unspecific

    Best I’ve seen. I’ve been a dedicated amateur astronomer and astro-imager for a long time and have used Sky Safari Pro since early Mac only versions. It has consistently provided the answers to most of my questions quickly and reliably. The UI is easy to figure out and improves with each major revision. Customer support has also been great.

24. ★★★★★overall positive experience· unspecific

    zoom. Finally the mouse zoom is working without using the + - buttons

25. ★★★★★overall positive experience· unspecific

    Love the app. Great app! Using it from version 6! But this glitch with compass! It’s triggers on by itself! Sometimes when you go back from object info, sometimes in the main view! Really annoying

26. ★★★★★overall positive experience· unspecific

    C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS update needed. Please update comet data.

27. ★★★★★overall positive experience· unspecific

    Incredible. Incredibly written and executed. You can be up and running in 1 minute - but there are also a ton of settings / features if you want to/ need to dive deeper. This program is the standard in our hobby.

28. ★★★★★overall positive experience· unspecific

    Watching ISS. The station notified me and I went outside to check it out and there it was, love it!

29. ★★★★★overall positive experience· unspecific

    Moon phase issues. There’s something going on with the moon phases. It’s currently a full moon but the app (with time set to now) says it is new moon. SkySafari 7 Pro does not have this issue.

30. ★★★★★overall positive experience· unspecific

    Plate solving. Is there a video or manual on how to do this?