Skysafari 5 - Android

[ronin]

Well Skysafari 5 for Android is available. I have been waiting for it for a couple of months and it appeared.

Was going to get the Pro option but eventually decided on the Plus, reason being simple Plus cost less and I think Pro has 81 million stars in it and Plus has 2.1 million, similar with objects like DSO's and comets etc. Just decided that I did not really have a use for the vastly increased number. So Plus it was.

Downloaded and installed and up it came. Never having seen it before I played safe, pressed the Tonight option and it crashed, set a report then decided to just run it. It all ran. Eventually worked out some of the settings.

Cannot give it a lot of praise, just not used to it compared to others. Although all the others were removed after an hour ot two, this one will likely stay as it does what I want (almost).

So apology's for a bit negative on the following 2 aspects:

Would be better if they simply suppied a clear horizon, I do not have the Hawaiin mountains outside my door wuth the observatories blocking my view, so why does anyone think I want it on a tablet screen? Every "horizon" option seems just about irrelevant. Still trying to work out if a transparent Earth is any use, I suppose it at least shows went is rotating into view, but having a big Sun at 23:30 at night on the screen is disconcerting.

Second "horizon" one (OK I find horizons a problem) I think it would be better to have a horizontal horizon, everything is curved "upwards" at the edges. When I stand outside to look the horizon is flat/horizontal. It sure as heck is not higher in my peripheral vision on either side. Since the earth is curved the other way actually and my eyes and brain interpret the horizon as flat I would have liked a flat horizon as an option.

There is an option for the horizon to move up, would have been nice to have had the opposite and move it down as well. If I move the horizon up I can hold the tablet up and see the objects beneith the tablet, but it gets heavy. Would have been nicer to move the horizon down say 10 degrees as that way people can hold the tablet lower and look up at the sky. It just seems more "normal".

Settings were (maybe are) not saved. Set DSO's limiting mag to 8.0, it went back to the default of 8.75 at least twice. Getting the DSO's to appear on the display didn't happen when the setting were made. Took a couple of actions before they were there. Bit unsettling that they did not appear. Concerning DSO's they need a smaller icon for a DSO. M31 is a big oval that looks as if it was an afterthought. Still unsure about the setting being saved, sometimes they are there sometimes they are not.

Needs a simple return to viewi button, found I had to keep going back through the assorted screens where I had changed things. I half had the idea that when progressing back the setting were returned to the defaul that I had just changed.

The crash on Tonight did not reoccur. Seems it could have been a classic first time through one, it was the first action I performed.

Will say that never used this before and it looks good, and I might well be able to configure it to what my preferences are, just at the first meeting with it I could not, so someone may have greater experience/knowledge then I do. Not difficult as I have basically just crawled off the zero line.

So if you were waitng for Skysafari 5 for Android it is there waitng for you. They have the half pricce offer on the versions also, for a while.

[Knighty2112]

There are a lot of settings in Skysafari, so you should be able to do most thing you said, but perhaps not all. I have the IOS version on other my IPhone and IPad. You can set the horizon to show a clear horizon. I've had it for around six months now and still finding settings I didn't know where there.  

 

[Stu]

One of the few (only?) who does not like SkySafari then.

There are options on the horizon as clear, translucent and opaque with no Hawaian mountains etc so just re check the options and pick the one you want.

If you just switch out of compass mode then you can hold the tablet wherever you like, and position the horizon wherever you like and it does not move when you move the tablet.

I get the bit about curved horizon, though I don't actually see any other way of doing it. If you zoom in then the horizon becomes flatter, it's only curved because it has to complete the full circle over to the opposite horizon.

As for DSOs, you set the brightness that you want to show, but then it changes depending upon how far zoomed in you are, just as you would see more with a scope. You can select to show them as circles/ovals or images or both, doesn't seem like an after thought to me.

Perhaps you should spend some time getting used to the app before posting a balanced review?

[Adrian Condon]

Hi Ronin,

SkySafari 5 is a good choice! I have three copies of the Pro version on my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro.... (I don't have an Android version)

I agree it takes a bit of time and effort to get what you want out of it... I have other packages installed, but I like SkySafari the best.

I was camping last week in Scotland when the sky cleared, we started to identify stars and I used my iPad to show a number of families SkySafari working.

The kids thought it was great guessing the stars and then confirming them with the iPad. 

It is a bit pricey especially on the MacBook Laptop...... £44+

Good Luck with it!!!

Cheers

Adrian