Cool Fun

Now that I have my iPhone working again, I am once again using it all the time.* Which also means that I'm tuning in to iPhone app stories and reviews.

* While I'm a huge fan of my iPhone, I am not going to get into a religious war over the "best" smartphone platform.** If you are a fan of Andriod, cool. Some other smartphone, more power to you. I like how my iPhone works and really enjoy the applications available for it.


** I also don't partake in religious wars over Unix editors (I'm an emacs fan, but can sort of use vi) or other things. I appreciate it when I find value or usability in a tool, an OS and really appreciate the difference between my Strats and my Les Paul. 

I admit am not always up-to-date on things and probably behind the curve on a number of apps. That being said, I freely admit to getting very excited when I discover a new app with a high coolness factor.  One such recent discovery is 'Starmap'.

I like the idea of looking at the stars, but I am in no way close to being a hobby astronomer. The best I can do is find polaris.  I've often thought about buying a telescope, but have not yet done so. For me, I enjoy looking up at the stars, wish I could better identify things and I look forward to getting the chance to see the Milky Way again.

When I heard that the Persied meteor shower should be in view this week, I got a little excited.  After reading a Wired article about how best to view the meteor shower, the article's instructions were pretty simple, locate the constellation Perseus around midnight.*

* This is for folks in the Northern Hemisphere, Eldoret by virtue of being located 30 minutes north of the equator put me just barely in the north.

Sounded simple enough, except I had no idea where to find the Perseus constellation. Ah but there are Smart Phones and entrepreneurs abound. The Wired article also included a iPhone app recommendation for the Astronomy-challenged like me in the aforementioned Starmap app.* A quick $12 purchase and I was all set.**

* They was also a recommendation for Android users.


** $12 US seemed expensive when I first saw the price, but the reviews for the app were stellar and I decided to purchase the app anyway.

Starmap makes use of the iPhone 3GS (and 4) built in compass to help average folks locate and identify celestial objects in the sky. The first night I used it, I had so much fun. I quickly identified Mars, Venus, Saturn and a few other stars.*  It was all very very exciting.

* I could clearly see Mars' red color without the aid of a telescope or binoculars.

As for the meteor shower. Well, I missed out. The midnight viewing made it quite tough for me. I'm usually up at 5:00 AM, which means that by 22:30-23:00, I'm out for the night. Oh well, I hope that I can glimpse the Leonid meteor shower in November.  Until then, on clear nights, I'll be using Starmap and this may result in my buying a telescope.