Wednesday App Review: Star Tracker

I grew up in the country and when you live five or six miles away from the nearest city, the amount of stars that you can see with the naked eye on a clear night is absolutely stunning. I mean, there are more stars than you could possibly count. Because of this I have always been a huge fan of star gazing, although I never really learned to identify all that many constellations. So, needless to say, when I discovered the Star Tracker app, I was absolutely enthralled. While there are easily a couple dozen different star tracker apps available on the marketplace, personally I found PYOPYO Studio’s Star Tracker to be my absolute favorite. The artwork is absolutely stunning and on my smartphone, at the least, the tracking is remarkably accurate. The constellations are easy to find and pick out in the night sky–all you have to do is launch the app, hold it up to the sky and it will show you what is in that location with easy to read labels. As far as interface goes, there aren’t very many options in the free version and a handful of settings that I found irritating and had to turn off, including background music and an annoying feature that zoomed in on a constellation the moment you hovered over it. Both of these functions can, fortunately, be toggled by tapping the icons in the upper left hand corner. The app shows all twelve astrological constellations as well as around 88 others. It also maps out the locations of the planets, moon and sun and several deep sky objects. There is a convenient marker for the horizon if you’re in a hilly or wooded area as well as a compass for faster locating. And did I mention the art is awesome? Because it really is. Now, I probably ought to include a disclaimer that this app might not work on all devices. Some entry-level phones don’t have all of the necessary sensors (like an accelerometer or good gyroscope) that make the tracking function work. You also will need to have GPS turned on so that the phone can find your location in order to use charts to tell where the constellations will be. So, while I found it very snappy and accurate, the quality of the sensors in your phone will have a strong impact on how well it works. It’s also worth noting that there is an option to upgrade to a the Pro version, which includes several pretty awesome features like searching for a specific constellation, a night mode to help with the light (although I just dimmed my screen all the way down with the free version and it wasn’t too bad) and a menu which makes some settings a little more intuitive. The Pro version is a one-time purchase of $2.99 but it is not really necessary to enjoy this beautiful app. The Star Tracker app is available for free on Android with an in-app purchase option to remove ads and upgrade to the Pro version. On iPhone devices, you have the choice of downloading the $2.99 Pro version, with no ads and all the bells and whistles or the free Lite version. The ads are banner ads and personally, I barely noticed them. But, if you’re looking for a great way to explore the heavens above, then you really can’t go wrong with this one.]]>