Is it worth the money? Star Walk 2
Starwalk2 is like a telescope-encyclopedia hybrid. Mike Plant uses it to see galaxies that are far, far away – and where they were a long time ago
Star Walk 2 Format: IOS, Android, Windows 10 app Website: www.snipca.com/22605 Price: £4.58 (including add-ons) Free trial period: N/A
Irecently spent a week enjoying the great outdoors in ‘God’s Own Country’. Trekking through the Yorkshire Dales by day was as awe-inspiring as ever, but equally as stunning was scouring the wonders of the Milky Way at night.
Seeing the stars so clearly makes you curious as to what exactly you’re looking at. At a pinch I could just about identify the Plough and Orion’s Belt, but for everything else I turned to Star Walk 2 – an IOS and Android app that puts a map of the night sky in your pocket.
Twinkle, twinkle, little stars
Opening the app and pointing my tablet (a phone will serve just as well) at the heavens displayed an overlay of all the stars in that section of sky. I could then tap the app’s camera icon to overlay a live picture of the stars, which let me identify the planets and constellations I was seeing with my own eyes. You can then rewind (and fast forward) to see the night sky at different points in history by tapping the clock icon at the top right (not that I had much clue as to what to look for in different time periods). What was more impressive were the stunning depictions of constellations as I surveyed the sky (see screenshot above).
So far, so familiar to anyone who’s used the free version of Star Walk 2 (IOS: www.snipca.com/22732, Android: www.snipca.com/22733). But the app really comes into its own when you pay £2.29 for additional features (on top of £2.29 for the basic app). These add details about everything from Earth’s satellites to the far-flung Andromeda Galaxy (the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way, I’m reliably informed).
The final frontier
Of these extra features, I particularly enjoyed Planets Info, which lets you zoom into any planet in the solar system, rotate it on its axis, examine its core and find out about geographical features and other points of interest (such as details of a future manned mission to Mars – see screenshot above right). Another interesting feature was Satellites, which tracks man-made devices orbiting Earth.
I then tried the Deep Sky Objects and Extended Solar System features, and initially wasn’t blown away. But gradually I was drawn in by the plethora of astronomical facts, myths about how stars and planets were named, interactive 3D models, coordinate information and photographs. Simply tap the name of a celestial body when it appears in the screen to see all kinds of facts and figures.
One final feature worth mentioning is the app’s notifications settings. By tapping the Menu icon (four horizontal lines, bottom right) then Notifications, I could choose to be notified when significant events occur (when the International Space Station is overhead, for example, or a planet-alignment takes place). Helpfully, I could stop the app from sending these notifications in the middle of the night (see screenshot left).