Excellent App

[vlebo]

I was just at my Brothers house were his daughter has a 130p and he showed me a new app he just downloaded from Apple called Distant Sun2. It works with an Iphone that has a digital compass which I think are the new ones (3s , I am not too sure ) but what an excellent app. You just hold the phone up to the night sky and the screen shows you exactly what you are pointing at with star names , constellation names , Messier objects , planets etc it also gives you lots of info on what you are looking at which is great for beginners. It is actually a very similar screen to Stellarium and very accurate as you move it around the sky. We then mounted it onto my nieces 130p and used it as a finder and it was spot on and there was no ferrous metal interference from the scope. A compass interference notice came up on screen a couple of times in 20 minutes but it did not affect performance at all. And all for the costly sum of £4.00 ( thats what my brother said , I have yet to check out the price )

My phone contract is up in a couple of months, guess what I am getting as my next phone?

[AstroTiger]

Yes there are some lovely apps for the iPhone on the market

To add to the kit there is quiet a nifty planetarium program the iphone uses.

I am a pocket pc user myself and yes a tad green eyed with envy, me thinks i will also soon upgrade to one!

[jgs001]

Star Walk, that was released for the IYA does the same thing... I just with it worked as a compass on the Ipod Touch...

[Beyond_Vision]

The HTC Touch HD has gps and accelerometers so technically can do the same thing I just wish someone would develop the software

Regards

Kevin

[LunarLight]

Distant suns is a awesome application, I have been using it for a while now and have found it very useful. I like it cos it looks more 'real' then some of the others I have downloaded, it makes constellations easier to spot

[red dwalf]

i noticed a wifi gadget that works with the i phone at this years astrofest, skyfi i think it was called, a box plugs into the handcontroller and then a program on the i phone which looked simular to sellarium sends instructions to the mount, worked really well

[Beyond_Vision]

That can be done with bluetooth to serial port convertor widget costing around £30 to 40 with most planetarium programs that run on a pocket PC or palm device and other phones. This may be possible on a iphone if it has bluetooth. I cannot see the advantage of doing it by Wifi with the cost of their box and software.

Regards

Kevin

[jgs001]

The Ipod touch has bluetooth Kevin, so I'll be very surprised if the Iphone doesn't. That sounds like a workable arrangement.