Review: GoSkyWatch Planetarium

Overview Look! Up in the sky?! ... No, down on your iPhone. It's the entire night sky on your iPhone! GoSkyWatch Planetarium is more than a mouthful, and I'm surprised it doesn't make your iPhone heavier simply because of how much data it contains. Ever wondered what a star in the night sky was? GSWP will help you easily identify any star you see, according to your location, time of year, viewing angle and direction that you're looking. It is simply a wonderfully fun app, especially for educational purposes. My kids are going to freak out.

Functionality

Starting up GSWP may actually take you a while, but just realize it's putting the galaxy in your hand. It's worth the wait. You will then be presented with a transparent globe representing the earth. You'll see the points of the compass located around the sphere which will help you as you rotate the earth according to your viewing direction and angle.

The toolbar at the bottom doesn't have descriptions with it, but you'll figure this out quickly. GSWP has plenty of things to look at and may even have you dancing with the stars in happiness. The options include: - Play. When you push this, the sky/globe begins to rotate, showing you how the positions of the stars and planets changes with the passing of time. At the top of the screen, you'll see the timer advance after pressing forward. You can stop it and rewind it as well. - Search. This pulls up a list that allows you to search for planets, constellations, stars, and deep space objects. The U.S.S. Enterprise was not included in the search results of the latter. Darn. One nice thing about this is that only the objects visible from your location are available to be searched for. The other objects are grayed out, indicating you can't see them from your sky at this time of year. - Magnify. Very cool feature here. Pushing this brings up a slider which essentially brings the stars and objects closer to you. This was very useful because I could judge by the ambient light around me just how many stars I could actually see. If I was out in the country, I would imagine I would be able to see more stars. The magnification feature can show you what you might be able to see if your conditions were better. - Options. This is the screen where you set your current location (or any location), the date and time, night mode and all kinds of other preferences. The other preferences includes such features as showing the ecliptic image, the horizon grid, lines, boundaries, etc. It even has the ability for you to make the call whether Pluto is a planet or not. I thought he was Mickey's dog. Night mode is a nice feature as well. Instead of having to look at a bright iPhone screen which could blind you and prevent you from adjust well to the dark, it puts all points of light in red and turns the rest of the screen black. This enables you to use it, uh, in the dark... Which is when you would be able to see stars.... Unless it is daytime and someone hits you over the head... Nevermind, you get the picture.

Review

The initial load time is a little daunting. I got a little frustrated with it initially, and I was on WIiFi. However, it's good that I generally don't write reviews on the day I first try an app. The more I've thought about it, the more I see the reason for that. Anyone would need some time to cram the galaxy into your hand. I was also a little puzzled by the buttons. The icons weren't standard, but it did lead me to just dive in and start discovering the features. I was especially pleased and surprised by the animated progression. I love being able to see the stars that I would normally see in the night sky moving across my iPhone screen. It really does help you to know where to look for what. This is just my ignorance, but The Big Dipper and Little Dipper weren't featured. The big one is known as the Great Bear or Ursa Major, and you can see the shape of it outlined translucently on the iPhone screen around the stars it composes. The Little Dipper is Ursa Minor. The ability to view the sky by time is also fascinating. And the amazing thing is that it works! Just take your iPhone outside (first putting it into night mode) and align your iPhone by dragging the sphere to the orientation you're currently facing. You'll see stars - literally the stars on your iPhone will match the stars in the sky.

Summary

GoSkyWatch Planetarium is a powerful app. Although it may stay unused on your phone most of the time, you're sure to impress kids and friends with this one. You'll learn the names of the planets, stars, constellations - all while having your heart stilled by the magnificence of creation. There's just nothing like getting perspective on your life and problems by sitting out on a cool evening under the stunning majesty of space. That's one significant thing this app does that most others don't - it encourages you to look up.

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