Sky Guide for iOS

If the ‘Night Sky’ edition of Field Notes wasn’t enough of an astronomy fix for you, I’d recommend checking out Sky Guide for iOS. This thing had been sitting somewhere in my AppShopper wish list for a long time, forgotten, until Ben Brooks wrote about it yesterday. I’m glad he did, because this is such a cool app.

The way it works is, you fire it up, hold your device up to the sky, and it automatically orients the gorgeous, interactive sky panorama on-screen so you can tell which constellations you’re facing (or which ones are still below the horizon). You can even “listen” to stars based on their temperature and size, thanks to a relaxing soundscape designed by the guy who composed the Osmos soundtrack.

The panorama is comprised of over 37,000 photographs and looks absolutely stunning on a Retina display. As you move your device around in the air, the panorama moves with you, with constellations appearing and disappearing along the way. The artwork for the constellations is top-notch.

You can tap any of these constellations (or on individual stars, even) to get more information. You can also search for specific celestial bodies and it will guide you to their location in the sky.

I want to keep nerding out about this app, but the best thing you can do is check it out for yourself. It’s only $2.