
SkyORB 2021 Astronomy in AR 4+
3D Planetarium Stargazing News
Stephane Denis
-
- Free
- Offers In-App Purchases
Screenshots
Description
SkyORB 2021 Astronomy is a fast and lightweight astronomy app including a 3D star map, 3D planetarium, ephemeris with notifications, search engine, news, sun clock, point at the sky, weather, and more. Tap "...More" to learn why you should download this App today!
SkyORB features many functions as a 3D real-time representation of the planets position around the sun, the ability to hold your device and point toward a visible star and planet and reveal the name by tracking the GPS position, compass orientation, the elevation from the gyroscope or with ARKit.
SkyORB is free to download and you can upgrade to the premium version directly from the application to enjoy even more features, as notifications and on-the-cloud backup.
What you will get with SkyORB (Lite version):
* Fast (multi-core optimized) and lightweight, full featured astronomy app.
* a 3D real-time planetarium with photo-realistic rendering,
* a Zoom all the way in to the solar system, or zoom all the way out to the rest of the Milky Way in 3D.
* a 3D real-time sky rendering, with tracking from compass and gyroscope, Augmented reality with ARKit support.
* Comets and satellites positions, with update from the Web for latest entries, including near earth asteroids, date of latest observation, and charts
* Weather forecast from current location,
* Personalized ephemeris including next 60 days astronomy events, including peak day of meteors showers, date of planets elongation and opposition.
* Display day/night terminator on a world map,
* Powerful universal search engine: type few letter and find a matching nebula, constellation, place, planets, space probes (Pioneer and Voyager) and more.
* Moon phases with dates, including rise and set times,
* Ability to simulate the sky from any place in the world and even from other planet like Mars
* Be alerted when a phenomenon (planet at its brightest, full and new moon, eclipse) is occurring with local notifications. Also receive enhanced push notifications of astronomy news released in the press.
Upgrade to SkyORB Premium (one-time purchase or 12-month membership) and unlock access to a host of additional features that will extend and improve your use of SkyORB as:
* Ad-free version
* Full screen in planetarium view, including more view unlocked
* Display more information on moon phases, ephemeris.
* More views unlocked, including ability to hide user interface in planetarium and local view modes,
* More complete search engine,
* Easily recover your premium upgrade to all your devices connected to your account, thanks to the iOS cloud storage.
* And many more features unlocked !
* Apple Watch with vocal search engine, digital crown, equation of time complication, and stand alone from the phone.
NOTE that your 12-months Premium Membership will automatically renew for the same duration and price as the one originally chosen.
You can update your membership or switch off the automatic renewal 24 hours before the next subscription payment by signing in to your iTunes account (AppStore, page bottom Sign In, View ID) and go to the "Manage Subscriptions" section. No cancellation is possible during the running subscription period. See privacy policy link at https://www.realtech-vr.com/support/privacy. Premium membership requires internet connection.
What’s New
Version 2021.12.10
Bug fixes and improvements.
Ratings and Reviews
Best sky catalog
This program has the best sky catalog of any of the programs I have tried. You can search for things like the dwarf planet Ceres, for NGC objects and for satellites.
The circle over the searched for object is annoying. It is useful while you are trying to get there but would be better if it were a different color like bright green and unfilled.
I haven't found a way to use it to look at a time in the future or the past even after purchasing the full version.
-----
Newest upgrade:
The app is orientation aware except for the list of searchable objects which appears upside down when I hold my iPad with the home button up.
Searchable objects list is the only thing I have found in the app which is not in night mode and is a night vision killer since the white box takes up a lot of real estate.
I got into the time adjustment mode but there was no way to get out except closing and relaunching the app.
The option for turning off the red fill in the planet locator is too well hidden.
I should have known better!
I should have known better than to spend money on the premium add-on for an app that hasn't had any reviews in 2 years, with many of those old reviewers complaining they paid for premium but didn't get the premium functionality.
That's exactly what happened to me - I bought the premium add-on so I would have the Apple Watch functionality. Apple knows I paid (I received the receipt from them) but the app does not and the Apple Watch functionality isn't there. I've reinstalled the app multiple times on both devices and have rebooted both of them many times.
So that's $4 down the drain that I spent for functionality that would be very useful if it existed, but it does not. I have contacted the developer but haven't yet received a reply. I will gladly update this review and award 5 stars if I ever get the premium SkyORB functionality I paid for.
(Several 2021 updates to the app claim to have dealt with this problem but they haven't.)
Poor sky-viewing app.
There are so many areas for improvement with this app it is not possible to list them all, and I do not suggest you use it nor upgrade to their premium product; I have not upgraded and have no plans to. I suggest you try Pocket Universe instead.
For starters, the interface is clunky and unwieldly. Function icons are not clearly labeled, and occupy valuable display space on my phone. I should be able to hide these icons to make full use of my phone's display or they should auto-hide themselves in some off-screen fashion. To continue, pop-up information does not clear itself and gets in the way of the skyview display. The app continued to display data about Mars when I had navigated away from that planet's view in the "orbital" view. The app also does not remove information that is no longer relevant to the star/planet/satellite object that I am no longer looking at through the app. There is no obvious control that actually removes these info pop-ups; the control only resizes the pop-ups but does not remove them. Additionally, the stars all have "lens-flare" or "starburst" effects that won't turn off. A control needs to be plainly and obviously named that can disable this effect. Finally, the "night vision" mode should be just that: everything should be low-HSV color or red. When this option is turned on, the app does not use an appropriate color scheme.
The list goes on, but these are some of the most obvious items that can be improved upon.
In-App Purchases
App Privacy
The developer, Stephane Denis, 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 Used to Track You
The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:
- Location
- Identifiers
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
- Location
- Identifiers
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Stephane Denis
- Size
- 116.7 MB
- Category
- Education
- Compatibility
-
- iPhone
- Requires iOS 13.0 or later.
- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 13.0 or later.
- iPod touch
- Requires iOS 13.0 or later.
- Languages
-
English, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2002, 2022 realtech VR. All Rights Reserved. realtech VR, the realtech VR logo and SkyORB are trademarks of realtech VR in the US and/or other countries.
- Price
- Free
- In-App Purchases
-
- Premium Version $3.99
- 1-year Premium Subscription $1.99