GoSkyWatch Planetarium iPad 4+
Go Explore the Night Sky
GoSoftWorks
Designed for iPad
-
- Free
iPad Screenshots
Description
Easily and quickly identify and locate stars, planets, constellations, galaxies and more by simply pointing to the sky. Your personal telescope to the wonders in the night sky. Go outside and explore the night sky.
***** As seen in Apple's iPad 2 event
***** Featured on ABC's "The View"
***** Featured in "Wired" magazine
--- What People Are Saying
"Powerful and easy to use, with excellent animation and the widest zoom range." — D.Schroeder, University professor
"GoSkyWatch Planetarium should not be missed regardless of whether you are a casual or hard-core fan of astronomy." — AppAdvice
"I have more than 10 astronomy apps on my iPhone and this is by far the best. Everything I need and easy to use." — Pat, iTunes reviewer
--- What makes GoSkyWatch different to other apps?
• Easy to use — No buttons to press or modes to select, just point to the sky to start exploring.
• Designed specially for efficient outdoor use.
• Touch free identification — Information pops up on screen as you move. Great for those cold nights with gloves on!
• Popup images — No need to keep zooming in and out just to see what is out there.
• Full 180 degree display — See at a glance what is in the sky and where without having to pan around.
• Don't need to hold level — Displays the sky view and information at the correct orientation when held at any angle not just landscape or portrait.
• Gyroscope compass auto calibration — No need to calibrate the gyroscope. Advanced adaptive algorithms for smooth and accurate positioning.
• Planets shown with relative brightness to stars — No oversized graphics that prevent you from distinguishing a planet from surrounding stars.
• Unique target identification — Touch drag scheme for greatest accuracy since your finger doesn't hide what you are trying to identify.
• Minimal on screen text — Stars and planets easier to identify since they are not covered by text.
Features:
Identify
• On screen object name, brightness and distance
• Contains all stars visible to the naked eye
• Light adjustment for viewing conditions
• Touchless navigation even for the iPod touch without a compass.
Find
• Looking for a planet, star, constellation or galaxy? Just use the finder and let the arrow guide the way
• Search stars and DSOs sorted by name, distance or magnitude
• Moon phase calendar
• Sun rise/set times
Explore
• Day, sidereal and time lapse animation
• Over 200 images of planets and deep sky objects
• Messier and Caldwell catalogs with images
• Actual image taken of the Milky Way
• Below horizon display
• Look back in time with the birthday star search. Find out how old you were for the star light seen.
Learn
• Constellation images, boundaries and patterns
• Solar system, star, DSO, constellation Wikipedia
• Ian Ridpath's constellation StarTales
• Interactive graphical ephemeris
• Planet, star, constellation and DSO ephemeris data
More
• High performance graphics
• Easy setup using auto location or built in city list
• Location favorites
* No internet connection required. Internet optionally used for auto location, viewing Wikipedia information and StarTales.
Free International Space Station real time tracking and viewing opportunities available with the companion GoISSWatch app. We don't charge in-app purchases for that!
This free version contains banner ads. The full paid version with added features does not contain banner ads.
What’s New
Version 9.4.0
- Added tap compass button to toggle motion control
- Updated icons
- Fix to manual location coordinate entry
- iOS Updates
Ratings and Reviews
Love it
Great app good to use when trying to find constellations to view through my telescope, but keeps crashing
Getting worse, not better
I've had this app for years. In it's early stages, it was brilliant. However, since the previous update it has become progressively buggy, less stable and less accurate.
The old app of years ago would track the sky seamlessly and only required calibrating upon first opening the app. And it would point in the right direction all night thereafter! But now it does not. It jerks around and when it finally settles down, cardinal points are often a long, long way adrift of reality, sometimes well in excess of 90˚ and even up to 180˚ – and I'm still going to the same dark sky sites I did when it behaved properly!
To make matters worse, it now requires recalibration every few minutes, triggering the 30 second advertising banner, EVERY time.
A cynic might suggest there is a link between this constant need for resetting and the deliberately irritating (and far too bright) advertising banner – which may perhaps go some way to explaining the growth in app size as well as the jerkiness.
This used to be a clear five star app and probably the best of the genre – and when it works, it's still the best in terms of graphics. But it's becoming VERY frustrating…
Developer Response ,
The compass calibration has changed with recent iOS versions. Newer versions of iOS use just the movement for calibration. Moving the iPad around in all directions for a few seconds when the app starts helps speed up the calibration process. The compass accuracy reported by iOS is shown along the lower edge of the screen. Check that you are not using a case with hidden magnetic or metallic parts that can interfere with the compass. Please contact support if you still see problems with the compass alignment
Interesting, But Very Buggy
This app is interesting, but it is spoiled by a couple of serious bugs.
1) The map orientation cannot stay aligned correctly. North can be displayed as anything from North to South, and it wanders away from its initial setting (which is usually quite wrong) very quickly.
2) After a few minutes of use, the map locks completely, and can only be moved manually. re-starting the app does not restore functionality. The app has to be deleted and then installed again for automatic map movement to return. Then after a few more minutes of use, it will lock up again.
I have tried using this app over the past few years on an iPad Air 2 and an older iPad Mini. Operating systems tried have been iOS 8, 9, 10, 11 and Beta builds of iOS 12. it has problems on all iterations of iOS.
Developer Response ,
Check that you are not using a case with hidden magnetic or metallic parts. This is the most common cause of alignment problems. Also waving the phone around in all directions will help speed up the compass calibration. The current compass accuracy as reported by iOS is shown at the bottom of the screen. If it is red then there is a problem getting a compass lock and will lock the screen. Contact goskywatch_support@gosoftworks.com for more help.
App Privacy
The developer, GoSoftWorks, has not provided details about its privacy practices and handling of data to Apple. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
No Details Provided
The developer will be required to provide privacy details when they submit their next app update.
Information
- Provider
- GoSoftWorks Development Co.
- Size
- 100.2 MB
- Category
- Education
- Compatibility
-
- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 9.3 or later.
- Mac
- Requires macOS 11.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- Apple Vision
- Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- Languages
-
English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2020 GoSoftWorks Development Co.
- Price
- Free