{"id":6101,"date":"2013-10-31T14:30:15","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T21:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cosmologyscience.com\/cosblog\/?page_id=6101"},"modified":"2013-10-31T15:37:51","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T22:37:51","slug":"star-walk-amazing-astronomy-teaching-tool","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cosmologyscience.com\/cosblog\/fun-explore\/star-walk-amazing-astronomy-teaching-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Walk – Amazing Astronomy Teaching Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Constellation

Constellation by Star Walk<\/p><\/div>\n

I rarely endorse software, but this is a first because I’m excited about a software program that I don’t own and have never even operated with my own fingers. <\/strong>So enthusiastic I’m going to get a “computer” just so I can run it. The program only costs 3 dollars; the smartphone to run it will cost me a few hundred.<\/p>\n

Here’s why:<\/p>\n

Outside at night there’s lots of stars and constellations, but only a few are certain to me : the two Dippers<\/a> and thus Polaris the North star<\/a>, Orion<\/a>, Cassiopeia (the Lazy W<\/a>), and the Pleiades<\/a>. I might be able to find Andromeda<\/a> and the Magellanic Clouds<\/a>, but not with confidence. I regularly take photographs of our Milky Way – but am not always certain when I am looking at its center.<\/p>\n

To improve my skyward navigation I have star charts, maps and a load of books. However, few of them have ever left me with long term solid knowledge of the mapping our amazing heavens.<\/p>\n

Recently a fun friend, Jim Eagle, showed me a program on his smartphone called Star Walk<\/a> and in seconds I was hooked.<\/p>\n

It shows a map of our starry skies that mirrors the sky it is held up against \u00a0– even as you move it around the sky !<\/strong><\/p>\n

It knows what the sky looks like because it knows where you are and what time it is. Then as you tilt and move the phone it knows to re-adjust to the correct position in the sky. This is so cool.<\/p>\n

It just gets better from there. You can have the stars overlaid with constellations, or click on a star or planet to get detailed info on that object.<\/strong> And of course since its a smartphone you can easily zoom in and out.<\/p>\n

Well, that’s all I know from watching Jim operate it – but that’s all I need to know.<\/p>\n

The website says it only runs on Iphones and Ipads so far. But that’s OK. Its that cool.<\/p>\n

Star Walk<\/a><\/strong> by Vito Technology<\/a><\/strong>. Good work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I rarely endorse software, but this is a first because I’m excited about a software program that I don’t own and have never even operated with my own fingers. So enthusiastic I’m going to get a “computer” just so I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4952,"menu_order":9,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-6101","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmologyscience.com\/cosblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmologyscience.com\/cosblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmologyscience.com\/cosblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmologyscience.com\/cosblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmologyscience.com\/cosblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cosmologyscience.com\/cosblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6101\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmologyscience.com\/cosblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmologyscience.com\/cosblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}