Like GoSkyMap it’s an interactive planetarium. Doesn’t have an Augmented Reality mode so you can’t tell how the mountain in the foreground interacts with the Milky Way, for example, but you can ask it where to find constellations and it will indicate which direction you should look. BUT you have to make sure you set the location correctly. You can change the date / and time and point it “at space” and it will show you great details about what is there. On an iPad, it seemed to be accurate to about 0.2 degrees! Doesn’t do Now includes augmented reality mode so you don’t have to sight along an edge of the device. Even has a voice mode where it says aloud the measurement. Great for measuring angles above the horizon. The tilt angle calculations from the on-board accelerometers and gyroscopes seem to be pretty accurate. The iPhone and iPad, for example have quite inaccurate compass readings except in perfect scenarios… but there are some clever ways (I think) to correct for that inaccuracy. The biggest problem is overcoming the accuracy limitations in the current devices. Is it unrealistic to think a handheld app could meet these requirements? I don’t think so. Most of the apps that embed maps in them are difficult to use on the tiny real estate of an iPhone – and require data connections as well. That is, I want to be able point my device at say the Transamerica building and ask the app when (or if) the Andromeda Galaxy will appear above it when there is little or no moonlight. For night related photography, the app must also factor in twilight and moonlight.A poorly illustrated Milky Way won’t help me find the galactic center (which is what I most often want) or compare the alignment I want with the foreground I am trying to capture. Images of the Milky Way presented must be realistic. For planning shots with the Milky Way or other prominent sky features (like the Andromeda Galaxy and the Great Orion Nebula), the app needs to accurately plot the course of those objects on an Augmented Reality frame.Extra bonus points if there is a way to have the server periodically check possible alignments and send me alerts or emails when such alignments are soon to become possible. Bonus points if the data is stored in a server somewhere to make it easy to share.It’s not enough to keep track of the one event I photographed or plan to photograph. For example, a Pigeon Point Lighthouse vista that I really like only occurs a few times a year. I’d like to be able to pull up my saved locations and re-execute a search to find the next occurrence.Note that the plotted location of the moon is off due to iPhone compass hardware. Ideally I can save an image representing what I want with ALL data on the image so that if all I have is a photo, I can reconstruct the parameters in other tools or other ways.įor example, SpyGlass shows me my GPS coordinates, the elevation, altitude and azimuth (compass direction) – though as you can see it’s calculation on where to find the moon is off by about 15 degrees (30 moon diameters) due to iPhone 4 compass inaccuracy.The ability to take notes including things like height of the landmark is a big plus. If I’m solving for the moon, I’d like it to also remember the moon phase I’m interested in (usually full or slender crescent). An ideal app would allow me to stand in two or more different spots to define that leeway. In other spots, like the balcony of a building there is little leeway to move. In some locations like the shore of a lake there is more leeway to move. At minimum it needs to keep track of: From location, to location, altitude at the to location (degrees above horizontal), and any additional constraints like the fractional number of degrees that each measurement can vary. I want the app to accurately measure and save all the relevant data so I can reuse it and share it.If I want to catch the moon exactly behind the Pigeon Point Lighthouse less accuracy will result in a “miss”. First, I need an app with accuracy to within 0.2 degrees! Why? Because the moon and sun are only 0.5 degrees in angular diameter.Rather than illuminate what is missing from each app, here I describe what I want to DO with my handheld App. So far none have risen to the promise that a handheld app could bring to the table. Here at StarCircleAcademy we’ve been consuming and testing quite a number of photography related apps.
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