iPhone astronomy app, SkyVoyager, free today

July 20, 2009 iPhone Apps

iPhone astronomy app, SkyVoyager, free today

Filed under: Freeware, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review

Regular readers will know I’m hooked on astronomy programs, and we’ve reviewed quite a few in this International Year of Astronomy.

Today only, Carina Software, one of the premier publishers in the field, is giving away Mac, PC, and iPhone versions of their software for next to nothing. It’s in honor of today’s 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. On the iPhone, they are free, for the PC and Mac version, US$00.01.

I’ll focus on the iPhone offerings, in particular the more advanced SkyVoyager [App Store link]. Carina is also offering SkyGazer for free, which is slightly less advanced and has fewer features. I’d go for SkyVoyager at these prices.

OK, what can you do with this software? Well, just about anything to help you under the stars or to plan a night of observing. The software picks up your location from the GPS, and of course the date and time. It will display more than 300,000 stars and 30,000 deep sky objects (clusters, nebula, galaxies). You can see the night sky from any location on earth, and on any date you choose, even going back or forward centuries.

The software also contains NASA images, and work from other astrophotographers. Amazingly, if you have a computer controlled telescope, like a Meade, Celestron, and some other less well known brands, SkyVoyager will soon be able to wirelessly connect to it and steer to objects you select on the iPhone. You can get a complete list of supported scopes here. Note: To make the connection to your scope you’ll need a piece of hardware, the Sky-Fi connector, not available until late September. Go to this page for more info.

There are a lot of iPhone/iPod touch astronomy apps out there. SkyVoyager is full featured, and has very deep and complete data bases, especially considering it is running on a phone or iPod touch. It updates comet positions, along with asteroid and satellite orbital data. It requires a WiFi network for these downloads.

The only thing I’d like to see is the ability to use the iPhone tilt/tip sensors and compass to match your sky chart to where it is pointing in the sky. That works really well on Pocket Universe, which I reviewed recently.

SkyVoyager normally sells for $14.95, so free is pretty compelling. Remember, it’s today only. My fellow amateur astronomer colleague Steve Sande is reviewing the desktop versions of this powerful software today as well, so be sure to check out his thoughts. They are selling for only a penny, so it’s truly an ‘astronomical’ saving.

Check these screen shots to see SkyVoyager in action:

Gallery: SkyVoyager Screen shots