A Cool App on a Beautiful Night

Went to a tasty dinner last night at the Sikh Union restaurant and on the way out I looked up at a beautiful full moon.  The night sky was super clear and the moon was brilliant in the sky.  We have been without rain now for more than a week and it is so nice to look up in to the evening or night sky and see a few celestial objects.  On such nights, I reach for my iPhone and open up the Starmap app.*  Starmap is a great app, the authors are not kidding when they say it is "a complete planetarium in your hand". 

* Another cool app is Star Walk for the iPad.  I don't yet have it, but I have seen in it action and am impressed.

I love Starmap because it helps me overcome my celestial body ignorance. I know so few stars and never know where the planets are in the night sky. A quick look and I was able to identify Jupiter, Uranus, the star Aldebaran and a number of other bodies.  Because of the app and being in Eldoret, I can see more stars and I am more curious about the universe around me. As a result, I would love to get a telescope and spend some time staring out into the night's sky.* 

* Last night would have been the perfect time for a power outage. Without light pollution, I am sure the sky would have been even more brilliant and with any luck the Milky Way galaxy would have been visible.** 

* Years ago I went camping a few times up in the High Sierra Nevada mountains, a bit south of Mammoth Lakes.  We would camp around 11,000ft (3,300+ meters) at night the sky was brilliant. It was the first time I remember seeing the Milky Way.  

I am hoping for another clear night tonight, we should get to see part of tonight's lunar eclipse. Looking forward to that and I'll try to rig up something to take some photos.