This is a free app for your phone. Click on it, point toward the sky like you're taking a picture and you get these. I took them last night inspired by the alignment of planets this month.
Music plays and when you aim the cross hairs at the object, it's identity pops up at the bottom left.
The Moon, Jupiter, Mars and the International Space Station. (clearly the cross hairs are off).
And about 130* behind me, the Hubble Telescope.
Just put the free Lite version on my phone. I'll check it out. Thanks!
I find it tends to exaggerate the conjunctions to make it look like the moon and/or planets are almost touching when there is still separation.
I find it good for locating items in the sky and predicting when to go out and look. Also good for clearing up any confusion I have over which planet I am seeing when the sky is a little misty.
Having a clean horizon is important because otherwise Mercury is almost impossible to see.
It's a good app- I've had it for a really long time. The one issue that I've always had with it is drift- my phones are not really that great in finding north, and when you move around a lot, the location drifts a lot.
Fun story- when I first got it, I had a iPod touch, that didn't have GPS- it used the wifi to know where you are, or you could tell it where you are on the earth via city searching. But I was at sea, and wanted to know what I was looking at, and asked if they could add a feature where you could input the coordinates you were at to locate it in the app. Because I suggested that, they gifted me with the pro version. They are good people.
Kids seem to like it and I'm all for promoting interest in learning.
In reply to 914Driver :
Tonight was finally clear enough to try the app, my kids definitely loved it. Thanks for sharing!
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