What makes GoSkyWatch different?
GoSkyWatch was designed first and foremost to be simple to use. We’ve used the accelerometer in a unique way for touchless operation to be able to identify objects in the sky quickly and accurately even with the iPod touch or earlier iPhones that don’t have a compass. No buttons to press, no modes to select, just point to the sky and start exploring.
Many features especially for efficient outdoor use:
- Red light mode to preserve night vision.
- Touchless sky navigation.
- Planets are color coded showing their relative brightness to other stars for easy identification.
- Search for a planet, star or deep space object and let the arrow guide the way.
- Star magnitude adjustment to viewing conditions
- The display automatically orients correctly to any angle so you don’t have the hold the device exactly in landscape or portrait to line up the view with what you see.
We’ve all heard about the zodiac signs and all the mythical creatures in the sky by connecting the dots. But just how do the lines actually form a creature or object in the sky. With that in mind GoSkyWatch is the first iPhone application to overlay the constellations with the images the lines represent. We believe it adds a whole new dimension to exploring the constellations.
Finally we wanted to use the exceptional graphics and animation capabilities of the iPhone to the fullest for a smooth seamless interaction with the sky. You’ll feel like you are in control of the universe.
We hope you have as much fun with GoSkyWatch as we did creating it and using it ourselves. We’d love to hear about your sky watching stories. So go outside explore, discover and most importantly have fun.
Having trouble deciding which of the many iPhone star charting apps is right for you?
See independent review of apps by physics professor Dan Schroeder of Weber State University at http://physics.weber.edu/schroeder/iPhoneStarApps
Background
GoSkyWatch came about after my niece asked me if that was Mars above us. I just didn’t know. The family then went into a somewhat humorous heated discussion debating whether or not it was even a planet. We all knew about the planets in the solar system and that they could be seen but never actually knew where they were. After that I searched and found a nice astronomy application for my PDA at the time which answered our questions but found it just too complex for what I needed. I didn’t need to know about everything I couldn’t actually see without a telescope on me. I just wanted to know about what we could actually see and something so simple my niece could use.