Re: Stellarium Mobile
Eduviges Gearlds
Stellarium, the award-winning open source planetarium, is now available on your mobile devices! Download now and experience the night sky with Stellarium Mobile, brought to you by the original creator of Stellarium.
Stellarium is an established name in star maps and one of the best stargazing apps around, having originated as an open-source planetarium desktop program. The mobile version, Stellarium Mobile Plus, was developed by two of the original creators of the desktop app and provides an illustrative yet realistic map of the stars for iOS and Android devices. This premium app features an ultra-comprehensive map based on the Gaia DR2 database, which has a collection of over 1.69 billion studied stars, as well as all known planets, comets, and most prominent celestial objects from a catalog of over two million nebulae and galaxies - the most comprehensive that any mobile app offers.
When using the app, at the top left of the screen, you will find a down arrow, a star within a circle, and the designation for the star closest to where you last tapped the screen. Pressing the down arrow will show you information about the star's brightness and location in the sky. This is where the app is more limited when compared to others, such as SkySafari 3, where you receive more comprehensive details about celestial objects. The setting section also provides some star lore from different cultures.
Stellarium is a free and open-source planetarium, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version, available for Linux, Windows, and macOS. A port of Stellarium called Stellarium Mobile is available for Android, iOS, and Symbian as a paid version, being developed by Noctua Software. These have a limited functionality, lacking some features of the desktop version. All versions use OpenGL to render a realistic projection of the night sky in real time.[citation needed]
The fisheye and spherical mirror distortion features allow Stellarium to be projected onto domes. Spherical mirror distortion is used in projection systems that use a digital video projector and a first surface convex spherical mirror to project images onto a dome. Such systems are generally cheaper than traditional planetarium projectors and fish-eye lens projectors and for that reason are used in budget and home planetarium setups where projection quality is less important.[citation needed]
VirGO is a Stellarium plugin, a visual browser for the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Science Archive Facility which allows astronomers to browse professional astronomical data. It is no longer supported or maintained; the last version was 1.4.5, dated January 15, 2010.[10][non-primary source needed]
Stellarium Mobile is a fork of Stellarium, developed by some of the Stellarium team members. It currently targets mobile devices running Symbian, Maemo, Android, and iOS. Some of the mobile optimisations have been integrated into the mainline Stellarium product.[11][non-primary source needed][dead link]
Sorry for creating 2 threads but they are quite different.My question is simple - do you plan to make version of stellarium for symbian or windows mobile? This is great application and having it on my mobile phone will greately help me during my observations.
I don't think so. Currently the developers are preoccupied with fixing bugs and moving towards v.1.0.0. Adapting Stellarium for the limited capabilities of mobile devices will be a rather time-consuming task. Though in theory, it would be easier than rewriting it from scratch - Stellarium is built on Qt and OpenGL, and both Symbian and Windows Mobile support a version of Qt and OpenGL ES.
Kids can choose in the options menu which items to display and which to name. The amount of information contained in this mobile planetarium is nearly as vast as the sky, so kids will need to restrain themselves from labeling every option at once, lest nothing be discernible. They can view the constellations, with grid lines and artistic renderings and names, and then add in one of the navigational grid lines, or choose another of the many options.
The renderings are realistic and beautiful, but even more features set this mobile planetarium apart from the crowd. First, the app was developed by the same team that developed the well-respected desktop software Stellarium. This mobile version includes the extensive database of more than 600,000 stars, as well as illustrations and line drawings for the constellations.
Second, kids with an interest in programming may be especially drawn to Stellarium in either version because it uses open-source code. Last, kids can read about constellation names from 12 different cultures as well as a bit of history of astronomy in each of the cultures. So informative, so cool. Just a note: If kids use the search function, they need to know that the search uses Android-predictive text rather than a traditional type and search.
As with most apps, this tool could be used effectively but its effectiveness relies upon the creativity of the teacher. If teachers create story problems, measurement challenges, real life problems to solve using the application, it will make a good teaching tool. A teacher would need to invest time developing lessons that support and incorporate the application.
I have rounded up a list of the best stargazing apps for your mobile phone or tablet. These picks are based on the apps I personally use, and from the recommendations of some of the best astrophotographers in the world.
Some of the night sky apps mentioned in this article were pivotal in my education and understanding of the night sky. I often browse information about the target my telescope is pointed at using a smartphone app like Sky Safari Plus or Stellarium.
These are useful tools you can use for stargazing with your naked eye, binoculars, telescope, or even for astrophotography. They are especially helpful for beginners who need help identifying stars and planets in the night sky.
Many of the stargazing apps on this allow you to point your phone toward the sky, and provide you with useful information about what you are seeing. An astronomy app can tell you which constellations are currently in the night sky, along with bright stars, planets, galaxies, or even a newly discovered comet.
As you may know, I am a full-time astrophotographer who spends nearly every clear night under the stars. On my YouTube Channel, I regularly use stargazing apps on my smartphone and tablet to help me understand exactly what is currently available in the night sky.
I have also included the publisher of the app, the category, and the description of the application so you can get an idea of what to expect before downloading it. I have not included the price of the app (because this may change), but have included whether it is currently free or not.
Whether you use these resources to assist you in stargazing at the cottage, or a quick observation session with your telescope, these astronomy apps can improve your overall experience. They can help you better prepare for the weather, and find out when key astronomical events are occurring.
Due to the evolving nature of mobile apps and the sheer number of new astronomy apps popping up each day, I have not used all of these astronomy apps personally. Consider this post to be more of a round-up of the most popular apps, with good reviews and ratings throughout the astronomy community.
Identify stars, constellations, planets, comets, satellites (such as the ISS), and other deep sky objects in real-time in the sky above you in just a few seconds, just by pointing the phone at the sky.
I have heard good things about this polar alignment tool for equatorial telescope mount owners. I have been using a similar app called Polar Finder (listed further down the post) for many years on my Samsung Galaxy S21 (Android) phone.
You can mount your smartphone to a StarSense Explorer enabled telescope such as the Celestron StarSense Explorer Dob, and it will direct you to the next objects in the night sky from your location. The system works extremely well, and I highly recommend trying it out if you own a compatible Celestron telescope.
I enjoy this weather app over a more traditional one (such as the Weather Network). Where this app really shines is with the satellite imagery. You can watch developing cloud patterns and movement. Highly recommended!
The key features of Star Walk include real-time tracking of celestial bodies on the night sky map, augmented reality (AR) sky view, extensive information about deep-sky objects, and an astronomical calendar with various celestial events.
I have had a number of moon phase calendars installed on my Android phone in the past, and they all seem to work well enough. The problem with some of them, however, is the number of ads placed in the app, and the UX design.
This app is nicely designed while also providing a lot of great information. It includes augmented reality of the constellations but also the latest news in astronomy, a calendar of celestial events (including a daily stargazing index and weather), and a list of objects that are visible tonight (i.e. planets, constellations, stars) through binoculars, a telescope or using the naked eye.
I know there are a lot of people interested in capturing the space station passing overhead. To do this, you must know exactly where and when the event will happen, and this app can help you plan for that moment.
Seeing the northern lights can be an exhilarating experience, and can be very rare depending on your location. It is an astronomical event that you definitely want to receive a heads-up (literally) about. If you care about space, not knowing about a beautiful aurora display in your area until after it has happened could be a painful experience!
The Heavens-Above mobile app is a precise tool to see when anything in low Earth orbit is passing overhead, from the ISS to Starlink satellites. A handy feature is that you can filter the objects by magnitude, to only show visible passes in the night sky from your location.
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