Unique App

I just returned from using Star Atlas over a weekend star party. Its not a planetarium program....more like using Nortons Sky Atlas, where you use an index of the charts as a starting point. Nevertheless, its well thought-out and meets my needs perfectly for what it can do. Visible stars are listed by Bayer or Flamsteed designation. The mirror and rotate functions can match the eyepiece view of any telescope, enabing use as a finder chart. Selecting an item from one of the lists takes you to the appropriate chart with the object centered in the view. I particularly appreciated he double star list, as good lists of these are hard to find.

It is a minor annoyance to be researching a constallation and find that you have to go to another chart for part of it, but thats a property of the way the app is put together. Also note that the view does not rotate from portrait to landscape as the host device as rotated. There is a limit to the zoom that you can do.

All told, this is an excellent app and a terrific bargain. I would not recommend it to beginners trying to learn the sky - use a "real" planetarium program for that. Rather, it is another resource for stargazers who know more or less that they are looking for.

riedllc about Star Atlas