SMARTPHONE APPS FOR STARGAZERS

By Mark Marquette

I held off a while to get a fancy computer telephone in my pocket--a smart phone--and it didn’t take me long to load up on those applications simply called “Apps.”

And, as you might imagine, this stargazer has some favorite astronomy and space apps that are fun, educational and quite useful.

Let me share with you some that amateur astronomers like me have loaded into their phones to make looking skyward more fun and rewarding.

Now I have an Android version of a smartphone, and the rest of the world is the IPhone of Apple.  If you don’t have either, sorry--the 21st Century awaits you. As well as next week’s Stargazer column!

But for those who do have one of those amazing devices in their possession, I share what I’m packin’ to maximize my passion for looking up at the night sky. And go to your favorite “app” store to download a compatible version for you.

First app on my smartphone is a Compass.  This is useful for many things not related to stargazing...like getting lost in the woods!  I most recently used it to explain to my teenage daughter how to lay out a garden.  Figuring where the sunrise in the east and sunset in the west were, allowed an understanding that short crops like lettuce and onions will be on the southern side, while tall veggies like tomatoes and pole beans will be on the north side, thus maximizing the sunlight.

You need to know your directions to see the International Space Station--and that’s included with a cool app called ISS Detector.  I love this one, as it give you a five minute warning of when the ISS passes by, all the data of time, how high and a simple arc of the path with a pointer to keep you in the right direction.  The incredible, $40 billion complex covers a football field with its sun-reflecting solar panels and six large segments the size of a bus.  Put some binoculars on it, and you’ll see a boxy shape. But is bright and predictable as it goes through phases of evening and morning sightings about once a month for a week or so.  

To learn the constellations, and what bright star that is you’re looking at, you can’t beat the free app Google Sky.  This is simple, quick to learn, and even dims to red light at night--which doesn’t affect the night vision when our pupils dilate wider open.  I paid $1.99 for another “planetarium in your pocket,” the SkyEye app.  And it works great for a seasoned stargazing pro, but a little too much detail for the casual observer. You can strap it on a telescope, and it will help point to those galaxies and nebula the backyard amateur astronomer enjoys.

When the Moon is visible, and you look at it with binoculars or a telescope, it’s great to know the names of the prominent craters, mountains and those ancient, dark seas.  That’s where the Lunar Map HD app comes in handy. Every feature you can see on the Moon has a name, most honoring the world’s greatest scientists and thinkers of history.  And since they never change, it’s quite impressive to point out the crater Copernicus or the shore of the Sea of Tranquility, where the first American moon ship landed. The Moon App has several versions to download, including a satellite photo map, and a cartographic version.

If I’m looking at the Moon through one of my half-dozen telescopes, I am sometimes curious at to how much “power”  I’m using.  That varies with the size telescope and eyepiece I use, and to calculate the magnification, I have an app, Telescope Calculator.  PS: Backyard astronomers rarely use more than 250x, that magnification (or power) being a maximum for clarity and atmospheric conditions, no matter what those department store telescopes advertise!

When looking at Jupiter in a telescope, you’ll always see the four brightest moons--or you’ll want to know the name of the moon that is hidden behind or lost in front of the planet’s disk.  The app Where is Io? is named after the inner moon, and will show you also where Ganymede, Callisto and Europa are as they whizz around Jupiter in hours from side to side.  

And just for fun, I have a Mars Map app, though it is a good telescopic object only every two years or so.  But since I’m a Mars nut,  and very familiar with its geography, I like to look where the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers are, and visualize where the other missions to the Red Planet ended up.  It’s something to pass the time at the doctor’s office or any other boring situation I find myself in.  

Okay, what astro apps are left on my smartphone?  Duh, my Meteor Showers app, which give the start date, the peak and ending dates of all the major and minor meteor showers.  The Earth just plow through the Lyrids this week, peaking April 22.  And the peak of the eta Aquarids is May 6th--rated four out of four stars because moonlight won’t interfer.

I can’t live without my daily dose of NASA news, and there’s an app for that!  And, I enjoy getting an Astronomy Picture of the Day, the APOD app.

Finally, a little head’s up on what’s up in the sky is available with a weekly synopsis from the SkyWeek app of Sky & Telescope, amateur astronomy’s longest running magazine.  This app provides a day-by-day highlight of where the Moon is located, what events are taking place, and what celestial objects are available for viewing.

Astronomy apps are educational and entertaining, and now a part of my stargazing life.  Check ‘em out and keep a cosmic connection yourself.