The Star Walk application for iPhones and iPod Touches is a well-written program to locate and learn stars, constellations, planets, and more in the night sky. When the Star Walk app is first opened, it asks permission to use the current location. It will also use the current time and date, but this can easily be changed by touching the clock symbol in the upper right hand corner.
Star Walk Planetarium Screen
The Star Walk app shows an image of the current sky that will be in line with the direction the user is facing. Tilting the screen up as the user raise his or her arms to look at the sky above will cause the night sky display to adjust to the user's movements. This is a handy way for an observer to learn the stars in the sky.
Once the "star spotter" has an image centered on the screen, the lines of the constellation appear and an outline of the constellation's shape helps the viewers to understand, for example, how those five stars in Cassiopeia are supposed to represent a queen.
To learn more about a particular object such as a star or planet, the observer must touch it on the screen. Then in the upper left corner, the user touches the letter "i" in a circle that provides more information such as the star's name, magnitude, right ascension and declination. If a planet is selected, such as Jupiter, the information given begins with helpful facts such as "gas giant, fifth planet from the sun, mass: 2.5 times as massive as all other planets combined" and so forth until it runs out of room. At that point, a letter "w" in a circle, when pressed, will send the user to the Wikipedia page for Jupiter to learn even more.
One downside was the user must then close Wikipedia and re-enter the app to return to Star Walk.
Other Star Walk Features
At the bottom left an icon of a magnifying glass in a circle brings up a screen on which the user can find stars, constellations, solar system objects, and Messier deep-sky objects. For each category, the list that comes up provides the objects that are currently above the horizon to be in bold, while those that are not currently visible are dimly lit. The solar system category includes planets, the moon, and an extensive list of meteor showers, many of which are too sparse to be seen even at their peak. The Messier section shows a photo of the image in question with its nickname, magnitude, right ascension and declination and its distance.
The last icon in the bottom right corner looks like a animal paw, with three circles on the edge of one circle. Press it to get three different choices, either bookmarks, tools, or location. The tools section has four further sections. The first is to turn on night mode. This will change the display from black and white with assorted colors for some stars and planets to an all red display, which is best for preserving night vision. The constellation button can turn on and off the constellation lines and shapes. A sound button will mute the few noises made, such as the read-out after pressing the information button. And lastly, there is a sliding scale that allows users to select for the amount of light pollution in their location, allowing only the brighter stars to be seen or sliding down until even the faintest naked-eye stars appear.
Overall, the Star Walk application is very well done and is great for the average astronomy buff who would like to know what constellations and stars they are looking at and who want to learn more about what's in the sky above them.
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