Star Walk
Developer(s)Vito Technology, Inc.
Initial releasefor iPhone/iPod Touch: 2008
for iPad: 2011
for Android: 2014
PlatformiOS, Android, Windows
Typeedutainment
Websitehttps://starwalk.space/

Star Walk is an educational astronomy application developed by Vito Technology which allows users to explore celestial objects in real-time through the screen of their devices. The application has been presented within the mobile software market since 2001 and is available for iOS, Android, and Windows. Star Walk has been downloaded by over 10 million users worldwide ever since its release.[1]

It aims to help beginners in astronomy and students and professionals to locate and identify over 200,000 stars, planets, constellations, and satellites in the night sky and provide detailed information about them.

Functionality

The Time Machine function allows users to explore the night sky at different dates and times.

The application helps to determine the exact position of celestial objects in the sky, calculated in real-time based on the position of the user. It also includes information on star clusters, meteor showers, iridium flares, galaxies, and nebulae as well as the current position of dwarf planets, comets, asteroids, and man-made satellites.[2]

Star Walk utilizes a single-screen dashboard that displays the times of sunrise and sunset for the Sun (and other visible planets) at a particular location, as well as the current moon phase, elevation angle, and day length.

The application also allows users to rewind or fast-forward time to explore the map of the night sky in the past and future. Star Walk uses the iOS device camera for the augmented reality feature, combining the image data from the camera with the star map to give the user a real-time view of celestial objects.[3]

Star Walk 2

Star Walk 2 is an update of the original Star Walk astronomy application. This new version offers a re-designed interface with a 3 separate camera modes: free roam, manual/scrolling, and augmented reality. The augmented reality view also remains as a holdover from the original app.[4] In order to explore the night sky objects, the user can orient the device toward the sky so that the application activates the camera and the charted objects can be seen appearing superimposed on live sky objects through the use of augmented reality.

Users can scroll a list of objects visible on any night and from any location on Earth.

Reception

In addition to its commercial success, Star Walk has been well-received by critics. At WWDC 2010, Star Walk won an Apple Design Award for the iPad version.[5] In 2012, it won the Parents’ Choice Gold Award in the "Mobile Apps" category,[6] the Academics' Choice Award,[7] and the World Summit Award in the "Entertainment and Lifestyle" category.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "10 native apps that give Apple Watch some independence". Cult of Mac. 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  2. ↑ Turner, Adam (2014-04-05). "Astronomy apps: Planets v Star Walk". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  3. ↑ Chen, Jason (5 April 2010). "iPad App Review Marathon Live (Part 2)". Gizmodo.com. Retrieved 2014-03-05.
  4. ↑ "Star Walk 2 mostly improves on the original". Engadget. 24 August 2014. Retrieved 2019-09-13.
  5. ↑ Shah, Asam (7 July 2012). "10 incredible iPad apps for education". Thenextweb.com. Retrieved 2014-03-05.
  6. ↑ "Parents' Choice Awards. Star Walk". Parents-choice.org. Archived from the original on 2017-10-22. Retrieved 2014-03-05.
  7. ↑ "Academics' Choice Award™ Winner". Acasemicschoice.com. Retrieved 2014-03-05.
  8. ↑ "Winners of the World Summit Mobile Awards (WSA) 2013 with case studies and 30 videos". mobiForge. 2013-02-11. Retrieved 2019-09-11.
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