Our Galaxy 4+
A Three-Dimensional Atlas
Otherwise
-
- Free
Screenshots
Description
Our Galaxy is a unique app for both amateur astronomers and astronomy educators. It helps you visualize the 3-dimensional locations of deep sky objects in and around our galaxy, and provides you with an understanding of their physical properties. It addition, it illustrates the structural components of the Galaxy, including the thin disk, thick disk, galactic bulge and stellar halo.
The 3-D interface allows you to see where the cluster or nebula of interest is located relative to the center and plane of the Galaxy. By panning around, or moving closer to or farther away from the object, you derive a sense of where the object really is in 3-dimensional space.
The app enhances the observing experience by helping the user arrive at an intuitive sense of physical location, size, luminosity, and distance for the chosen object. It also serves as a great tool for education and outreach with its unusual visual perspective on the location of deep sky objects and their relationship to the center and plane of our galaxy.
See more videos and screenshots at the otherwise.com website.
Our Galaxy is also available for iOS.
What’s New
Version 2.1.0
• Improvements to the display of Search results.
• Search panel remembers previous search parameters. Use Reset to clear them.
• Added Proxima Centauri to database. Even though it's fainter than the 6th mag cutoff, it is special as the closest star other than the Sun.
• Fixed bug where the built-in view for the M81 Group was showing the Centaurus group by mistake.
• Miscellaneous small tweaks to database.
• Miscellaneous small UI tweaks.
Ratings and Reviews
Intriguing galactic model
This is a well-executed app, from the original developer of SkySafari. It specializes in conveying the 3D relationship of objects in space to their position in the sky. The sky map is a little bit 2D for me (I'm not a fan of flat paper star charts) but the 3D modelling is really well done. This app puts a nice twist on the "standard" image of our barred-spiral Milky Way. I found myself spending more than a few minutes zooming in, out, and around the model; turning various features (star clusters, etc.) off and on, and generally having fun. There is a lot of rich data in this app. I am curious to see where it will evolve in the future. DSS images, maybe?
Our Galaxy
This is a application that can help anyone understand our place in the galaxy relative to objects we see in the night sky both visually and telescopically. I found myself driving around learning where objects I have seen in the eyepiece are located relative to the Sun in the galaxy, both in and out of the gallactic plane.
Doesn't work with Sonoma
Fired it up after installing Sonoma and all it does is just hangs.
Developer Response ,
Sorry the app is currently not working with the latest macOS update 14.2.1. Apple appears to have made some change to permissions that has broken Our Galaxy, along with many other Unity-base apps.
I have submitted a bug report with Apple and they are looking into it.
App Privacy
The developer, Otherwise, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Otherwise
- Size
- 42.5 MB
- Category
- Reference
- Compatibility
-
- Mac
- Requires macOS 10.13.0 or later.
- Languages
-
English
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © Otherwise, 2021
- Price
- Free