Posted by Ryan Johnson on 09 11, 2010

Star Walk

Categories: Education, | 3 comments | |

Star Walk has got to be one of the coolest education apps available on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. It’s amazing how interesting this app is. As a child I remember clutching my telescope for hours scanning the skies in search of well known constellations like Orion’s Belt, and the Big Dipper. At times I would be unsure of what I found and would have to consult the parentals for confirmation. Nowadays, with Star Walk all you need is your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and you’re able to lock in on planets, stars, constellations, and more in seconds. It’s a dream!

Created by Vito Technology Inc., Star Walk is so much more than just a star and planet finder. It has many more fun extras built in to make your star gazing experience unbeatable. Sky Live is a feature that gives you a dashboard filled with the latest rise data for popular planets, the sun and the moon, which includes moon phases that let you see the times the moon will be visible and what it looked like yesterday, and what it will look like tonight and tomorrow night. Using this feature you can also easily view information from the past and can peak ahead into the future. It’s really cool.

The star spotting function really is the coolest feature of all. You really don’t need to do anything to get it to work. Adults and kids of any age can just open the app, position it toward the sky and instantly can make sense of everything above them. Let me give you an example of how handy this is. I was at a party just a few weekends ago where there was a debate over whether or not a twinkling object in the sky was a satellite or star. I was adamant about it being a satellite and went into a lengthy explanation as to how I could tell. Well, the debate continued on for about 10 minutes before another party goer stepped in to lend his two cents. Unfortunately for me he was armed with Star Walk. He whipped out his phone, pointed it toward the object, and proceeded to tell us the exact name of the star. How can you compete with that? You can’t!

Look, I can go on and on about more of the features like Time Machine, Picture of the Day, Location finder, and all the customizable settings, but I love the app so much that I think it’s worth you finding out for yourself. There isn’t a single thing I don’t like about this app, which for me is a rarity. Star Walk is a great conversation piece that you just can’t go wrong with. Break it out on a date, with the kids, or pretty much whenever you want. I can assure you you’ll enjoy it and will never look at constellations the same again.

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