San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) June 15, 2011

Southern Stars, a 2010 MacWorld Best of Show winner, has just launched a major new version of its best-in-class SkySafari astronomy app for iOS. Southern Stars also announced that SkySafari has now been downloaded more than 400,000 times. To celebrate this milestone, Southern Stars is making the new SkySafari 3 release free around the world on June 15th, 2011. That date is SkySafari’s second anniversary, and it coincides with the longest, deepest total lunar eclipse in more than a decade.

To download SkySafari 3 now, go to the iTunes store by clicking this link:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skysafari-3/id437108143?mt=8

SkySafari 3 now comes in three versions – basic ($ 3), Plus ($ 15), and Pro ($ 60). The basic version is free until June 18th, 2011; Plus and Pro are at half-price on the iTunes Store until June 21st, 2011. At nearly 500 MB, the all-new Pro version includes the largest database of any mobile astronomy app. It contains over 15 million stars from the Hubble Guide Star Catalog; 740,000 galaxies to 18th magnitude; and more than 550,000 solar system objects – including every asteroid and comet known to science. SkySafari 3 Pro has been in the 10 top-grossing iOS education apps since its release, and has received the highest user ratings of any Southern Stars product, ever.

To download SkySafari 3 Pro now, go to the iTunes store by clicking this link:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skysafari-3-pro/id437112382?mt=8

Finally, June 15th, 2011 brings the longest total lunar eclipse since 2000. The eclipse will be visible from South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. That date is also SkySafari’s 2nd anniversary. To help people track this eclipse, Southern Stars will release SkySafari 3 for free on the iTunes Store for three days, starting 24 hours before the event. SkySafari is the only iPhone astronomy app which can correctly simulate lunar eclipses and many other celestial phenomena. “We’re using the June 15th lunar eclipse to share our latest astronomy apps with the public, and to spark an interest in astronomy for millions of people around the world,” said Southern Stars founder Tim DeBenedictis. “It’s an event we couldn’t miss.”

More information, including video and a link to the app, can be found here:

http://www.southernstars.com/eclipse/index.html

About Southern Stars

Southern Stars is a world leader in mobile applications for astronomy, and has been developing planetarium software since 1993. In 2009, Southern Stars developed SkyFi, the first wireless iPhone-based solution for telescope control. That product, and the SkyVoyager iPhone app, won a MacWorld 2010 Best of Show award. Southern Stars was the also the first company to ship a Made-for-iPad serial cable for iOS devices (SkyWire). To date, Southern Stars’ iPhone apps have been downloaded more than 400,000 times.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Southern Stars has more than three decades of collective experience in developing astronomical software, telescope control systems, and instrumentation.

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Tags: Eclipse, Free, Lunar, SkySafari  |  Posted under Software  |    No Comments