Mobility

Five great Android apps for astronomy buffs

By // April 12, 2012, 2:47 AM PST // HuTerra

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  • Introduction

    Spring brings warm nights that are perfect for stargazing. Here are five apps that will enable you to schedule stargazing for interesting cosmic events, let you know when visibility will be at its best, and help you make sense of the cosmos once you're there. Go beyond Google's Sky Map and make the most of your stargazing experience.

    Note: If you'd prefer to view this information as a blog post, check out this entry in our Five Apps blog.

    Photo: iStockphoto.com/teekid

  • Meteor Shower Calendar

    Meteor Shower Calendar offers an easy-to-read list of upcoming meteor showers. You can customize time and date formats, color themes, and large or regular text layout. Particularly useful is the notification feature that emails you about peak viewing days.

  • Meteor Shower Calendar

    Clicking on a listed meteor shower brings up additional information regarding the moon's phase, meteor velocity, and other information about the anticipated meteor shower peak. Meteor Shower Calendar also has easy links to weather forecasts and Internet entries about each meteor shower. This app works with the SkEye app. For a free app, Meteor Shower Calendar packs a lot of information and customization options.

  • Astro Panel

    Astro Panel is a weather app for astronomers. The simple detail view shows daily information on the sunrise and sunset, cloud cover, visibility (labeled "seeing"), transparency, humidity, wind, temperature, and the moon's phase and altitude.

  • Astro Panel

    The More menu offers additional options to help plan astronomy outings. The Overview app view, shown here, provides a visual representation of the sun and moon positions and cloud cover as they relate to your exact location. Astro Panel is free, and it's really useful for planning purposes.

  • Star Chart

    Star Chart is especially neat for young hobby astronomers or those who want information but not necessarily spacial measurements. One of my favorite features is the way Star Chart draws in the pictures of the constellations, so you can see what the original viewers envisioned in those star configuration.

  • Mobile Observatory

    The object list shows objects that are visible from your current location. From there, use the calendar to get information on past and future cosmic movements. The events menu helps you plan your night outings in advance by listing upcoming events of interest and detailed information on visibility and timing for your location. Additional data includes Julian Dates for some objects and size data on others. Mobile Observatory is a great astronomy app for the more seasoned celestial viewer.

Introduction

Spring brings warm nights that are perfect for stargazing. Here are five apps that will enable you to schedule stargazing for interesting cosmic events, let you know when visibility will be at its best, and help you make sense of the cosmos once you're there. Go beyond Google's Sky Map and make the most of your stargazing experience.

Note: If you'd prefer to view this information as a blog post, check out this entry in our Five Apps blog.

Photo: iStockphoto.com/teekid

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By Nicole Nash

Nicole Bremer Nash is Director of Content and Social Media for HuTerra, where she uses SEO and social media to promote charitable organizations in their community-building and fundraising efforts. She enjoys volunteering, arts and crafts, and conduct...