Use Your iPhone To Identify Stars and Constellations

[Ed Hardy]

Distant Suns is an iPhone application that lets users identify the stars and planets in the nighttime sky.

This app uses the compass on the new iPhone 3GS to identify the planets, constellations, over a hundred galaxies and star clusters, and thousands of stars.

It lists over 88 constellations, with articles on on their mythology.

"Distant Suns gives users a faithful reproduction of the sky now or in the future or even back in Galileo's time," explains Distant Suns inventor Mike Smithwick.

Pricing and Availability
Distant Suns can be purchased at the Apple AppStore or DistantSuns.com.

This app sells for $5.99.

Source; Distant Suns

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[Antoine Wright]

It uses the compass, but I wonder if this is an app that could also use the camera - so that on those nights where its not so clear, you could point and see the connections, but not all the dots?

[headcronie]

I doubt the camera has the capabilities to gather enough light, let alone decipher what the points of light are, with a 3mp optical sensor.

[Drillbit]

There is something similar to called Google Sky Map for Android. Point the phone to the sky, and it will identify the constellation based on the compass, accelerometer, and GPS readings of the phone.

http://www.google.com/sky/skymap.html

Its free, its on public beta and currently its for Android only.

I have to say it also blows away that iphone app.

[Ed Hardy]

I'm a big fan of Google Sky, and it works very well. I'd hope that it gets ported to other platforms, but I somehow doubt it.

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