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Starmap – The Universe on Your iPhone
By Dave Peterson | August 11, 2008
One of the indicators of a good iPhone app is something that you want to have easily at hand, ready to launch wherever you might be. For astronomers, that describes a map of the night sky. Whether you have a telescope out and are looking for interesting things to observe, or simply find yourself some place dark with a sky full of stars above, it can be nice to have a star map within easy reach. Enter Starmap, an excellent iPhone app, that fills these needs admirably.
Starmap has the basic features you’d expect: 110,000 stars, 250 with names, all Messier objects, nine planets (yes, Pluto made the cut here), optional constellation lines and coordinate grids. But moving beyond this, it has a couple of features that really take advantage of the iPhone hardware. Nicest of all is the integration of the accelerometer (the accelerometer feature needs to be turned on under Settings > Navigation) . Select the direction in which you are looking, then hold the iPhone straight out from your face. The screen will show the horizon and the objects near the horizon. Rotate the phone up, keeping it angled directly toward your face, and the display will scroll up to match the stars at that viewing angle. An impressive and useful feature!
The bar at the bottom of the screen contains control buttons for the software. Because there are many more buttons required for all functions than would easily fit at the bottom of the iPhone screen, developer Frédéric Descamps incorporated a clever rotating interface. Place your finger on the area of the bar at right that looks like a textured grip, then slide up or down. One set of buttons rotates away and another appears. This is a very clean and intuitive way to provide extra controls without cluttering the UI.
There’s even a flashlight feature providing white or night-vision-preserving red light.
There are a number of desirable features due in the next release at the end of August: Improved autolocation utilization, star maps rendered in red (again, to preserve night vision), improved planet and sun graphics including correct Saturn ring orientation, and the option to hide the status bar. This developer is clearly interested in continuous improvement of an already outstanding product. If the idea of having a handy compact star map with you at all times is appealing, I strongly recommend Starmap, $11.99 at the App Store.
Topics: iPhone Apps | 3 Comments »
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:05 pm
[...] of this app in a short review. If you’re interested in a few more details, check out my earlier review at GadgetyTech.com, and take a look at the developer’s web [...]
November 24th, 2008 at 6:47 am
I would recommend StarWalk instead. There are no monstrosities of menus, where you can get lost. Also, there is no awkward rotation of the sky. You just move in any direction to either side of the horzion. After all, it’s twice as cheap!
February 11th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
[...] previously expressed my admiration for astronomy apps on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Being able to consult a [...]