Review of astronomy apps

[Resist]

Not sure what you mean about landscape mode; this app always uses landscape orientation.

Yes but it only does this on one side of the iPhone, with the home button to the right. Star Walk will be upside down if you view it with the home button to the left of the screen. With other video content the program will flip itself.

I would love to see this app show an above view of our solar system, not from earth. It would be interesting to watch the orbits of all the planets at different times.

 

[dvs]

Yes but it only does this on one side of the iPhone, with the home button to the right. Star Walk will be upside down if you view it with the home button to the left of the screen. With other video content the program will flip itself.

Yes, that's true. Does it matter?

 

[Resist]

Maybe not to most people, I just think it's a nice feature on the iPhone.

Wouldn't it be cool in Star Walk if it showed and you could track comets.

 

[dvs]

Wouldn't it be cool in Star Walk if it showed and you could track comets.

The new version of Distant Suns has an "alert" feature that apparently checks a server for information on upcoming events, including the appearance of comets. Of course, it's up to the developer to decide what events are worthy of alerts.

 

[Resist]

Seeing an animation of a comet would be great, then you plan where it would be on a specific date and time.

 

[dvs]

Seeing an animation of a comet would be great, then you plan where it would be on a specific date and time.

I don't think the alert feature of Distant Suns will actually let you animate the motion of comets. And none of the other apps show comets at all. But who knows what's in the works for the future?

 

[MaxPower49]

For a beginner who know really nothing about astronomy, what would you recommend dvs? I just want to do some basic identification... and I want something that doesn't require internet access since I haven and ipod touch. I'm leaning towards star walk because it is cheap and seems to have good reviews.

 

[dvs]

For a beginner who know really nothing about astronomy, what would you recommend dvs? I just want to do some basic identification... and I want something that doesn't require internet access since I haven and ipod touch. I'm leaning towards star walk because it is cheap and seems to have good reviews.

None of the apps require internet access. But to advise you on which is best for you, I would need to know a lot more about your needs and preferences. Please read my review, which is my best attempt to compare the apps and provide guidance.

 

[dvs]

iStellar now shows comets!

I should have posted this sooner: the new version of iStellar is much improved, and among other things now shows comets. I found it extremely handy for finding Comet Lulin last week. My review has been updated to reflect the new version.

 

[Beam42]

John Walker's HomePlanet...

and his totally brilliant real-time screen saver is the only thing I really miss from my jump from PC to Mac.

I got a reply to my plea from John today, saying basically 'sorry I'm out of here'... he suggested that "both Home Planet and its screen saver work fine under the WIN emulator layer for MacOS."

The only problem is though, nothing is going to make me put microsoft on my MBP... not even my much loved HomePlanet or my Lotus Organizer.

OK so the challenge to you hackers out there is obvious.


Living in hope

Beam42