Review of Sky Guide app

[RobertI]

Not sure this is the right place to put this (the software section didn't seem quite appropriate) but though I'd share my exeriences with the SKY GUIDE app for iphone.

Bottom line, I really loved it! It's a simple planetarium program, but with some additional really useful stuff which gives it a real wow, and means it's worth getting even if you already have SKy Safari or similar. It won a Apple award apparently.

Likes:

• It's only £2.99!
• A decent database of objects (but nowhere near SKy Safari)
• Lovely tactile interface and gorgeous graphics
• Nice satellie feature which displays passes in real time (and it is spot on) and shows some really nice information such as a schematic of the actual satellite, relative size compared to a person, when it was launched and by whom. I've just spent an hour using it under a twilight sky and binoculars and it was great fun. The db is not as comprehensive as Sky Safari, but the interface is way nicer to use, the movements smoother and there is usually something to view at any one time.
• If you select an object (including satellites) and point your phone at the sky with compass turned on, helpful arrows guide you to the right place.
• The sky or a portion of it can be viewed in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Again, very well executed and a joy to use - you simply press and hold to open a 'porthole' in the area you want, and the rotate the porthole to get the spectrum you want. I have learned quite a bit about some object using this feature.
• The 'compass' feature allows very smooth tracking around the sky, but there is a really cool feature to correct the compass just by press and hold and dragging left or right - works a treat.
• There are endless articles (which are really good actually) and some AR features which are great fun - I watched the Saturn V rocket take off from my coffee table!
• Brightness is adjusted by two fingers up or down gesture.
• There is also best of tonight, weather forecast and an interactive sky pollutiom map (again, it's really comprehensive).
• You can also have an augmented reality view if the sky by having your actual environment in the background, fun but not that useable in reality. 

Dislikes

• You can only zoom in and out so far which is frustrating. This is deliberate, as there is a super zoom add on (what they call the "supermassive" option) which allows super zoom in to objects with hubble quality images. It looks REALLY nice but is an additional £18.99 PER YEAR, not something I will pay for but I would consider a one off payment if it were offered.
• Not much else to dislike really!

Some screen shots below:

The whole sky shown in MIcrowave:

 

 

Edited July 23, 2019 by RobertI