When I was 7th grade, I was astounded by the sight of milky way galaxy under the sky of Australia. Because the lack of knowledge, I could only recognize the Crux. Then as I made it to freshman, there were times I took girl(s) or boy(s) out just to see the star. All I could distinguish was Orion's Belt, the Big Dipper, and the w of Cassiopeia. Polaris was very hard to identify due to light hazard of metropolis.
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| Two free star charts on iOS |
In old-fashioned way, we had to use the star chart and compass to identify the stars. Thanks to modern technology, we now can install the digital star chart onto our mobile devices. What's more, with augmented reality, mobile star chart can do all the works on finding the stars and leads us toward the star we want to look up. By using geolocation, mobile devices are able to tell the current position and let the app load current star map. Then with gyroscope, we are able mimic our device as a globe sphere and rotate to find the stars and constellations. I tried two free star charts, surprisingly they all worked even with no Internet connection. Although the free version have limitations on what to see, as a novice I think it should be enough. The upgraded version seems have different wonderful features such as unlock all constellations and their facts, follow the satellites, and augmented reality (more!?). For people who love to watch stars and want to learn more about the sky, buy the full version of the app would let them find their favorite star whenever wherever.
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| Night Sky Lite doesn't have augmented reality feature, but it offers all 88 constellations. Another downside is the app can't lead you to the star or sign you're trying to find. |
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| SkyView free version have augmented reality and the 12 signs of zodiac with its drawing, plus Hubble telescope and International space station. The app can only navigate to the sun, moon, and zodiac signs. |
Edward, these look so interesting! I am too a star gazer, but a novice. I've always tried to look up constellations in books, but verbal directions on where the constellations are located are always confusing for me. To have augmented reality to find where the stars are through a mobile device would be so awesome!
ReplyDeleteThis does sound really cool. It's interesting that the app doesn't use the camera on the phone to 'see' what's in the sky and use that for determining constellations. Rather, it uses gyroscope and GPS.
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