Star Walk – An Absolutely Dazzling Guide to the Universe

We’ve seen more than a few star maps for the iPhone but none as dazzling as Star Walk, a gorgeous interactive guide to the sky above that will appeal to astronomers and casual star-gazers alike. The graphics are simply amazing and must be seen to be believed. The information is deep, covering our solar system and light years beyond. In fact, Star Walk contains information on over 9,000 celestial bodies and constellations. Star Walk makes astronomy simple, and a lot of fun.

The app’s interface is pure genius, making use of the iPhone’s touch screen, accelerometer, and magnetometer to create a star guide that is incredibly easy to use. The designers of Star Walk have managed to create the perfect iPhone app which lands it on Touchtip’s short list of the greatest iPhone apps ever. This is the app we pull out at parties to impress our friends to show them how amazing the iPhone can be. With Star Walk we are rediscovering the awe and wonderment of the universe.

When you fire up Star Walk you’ll see a map of the stars around you based on your current location. Star Walk uses the iPhone’s GPS feature to pinpoint your coordinates to show you exactly where the stars are positioned from your vantage point. 3GS owners will discover an amazing feature that uses the iPhone’s compass to find your orientation and show you the sky in front of you in real-time. You can pan the iPhone’s display around and watch the stars scroll around. It works in daylight and under cloud cover, but it’s best on a clear night when you can see the stars and use Star Walk to identify them. Using Star Walk is like a having a little magic window in your hands. If you saw a video of Star Walk just two years ago you would have thought it was science fiction. It’s like having an entire planetarium in your pocket. Star Walk is an amazing app that never fails to impress.

The app’s interface is absolutely terrific. As you pan around the sky, Star Walk will automatically highlight constellations for you, but you can turn this off in the settings menu. The display also shows you the ecliptic line, the horizon and the stars located on the other side of Earth. Our Sun will appear exactly where it should be, throwing off gorgeous lens flare effects as you pan by it. The developers of Star Walk provide a user manual on their web site, Vito Technology, but trust us, you won’t need it. The app is extremely intuitive.

Four buttons conveniently placed for your thumbs, one in each corner of the landscape view, give you quick access to all the controls. You can tap select any of the celestial bodies, then tap the “info” icon to learn more about it. If there is a Wikipedia reference associated with it, you can tap to get all the encyclopedic details. There’s also a time machine button that lets you change the date and time so you can see what the sky looked like anytime in the past, or future. The 3D globe feature allows you to change your location on Earth so you can see how the sky looks from anywhere around the world. Imagine calling your friends in another country and telling them to look outside in a certain direction to view a star or constellation.

If you know exactly what you’re looking for you can use the search tool to type in the name. You can also browse by category and save yourself some typing. The categories are located just below the search input field and give you quick, drill-down access to Stars, Solar System, Constellations, and Deep Sky Objects (Messier).

Another great feature in Star Walk are the bookmarks which allow you to save your favorite views for later reference. You can even send bookmarks to your friends and if they also have Star Walk they can tap a link to see the view you saved. Star Walk comes with one bookmark for you, Apollo 11 from June 20th, 1969. Tapping this bookmark takes you to the moon at that date in the past to show you the location of our men on the moon. We’d love to see more space exploration bookmarks ship with Star Walk.

Star Walk appears in the Educational category of apps in the App Store, and for those of you who think that’s just too nerdy, then consider its romantic appeal. What is more lovely than sitting under a starry sky with your partner? With Star Walk you have the entire sky with you any where you go.

2009 is hallmark year for astronomy. This is the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of a telescope. It’s also the official International Year of Astronomy to encourage exploration of the universe. But most importantly, 2009 is the year you will buy Star Walk and discover one of the very best iPhone apps available today. And with 85,000 apps currently available in the App Store, that says a lot!

• Star Walk – $4.99 [app store]

 

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