Satellite Flybys
By Finch Consulting
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Description
The International Space Station. Hubble. The space shuttle. Astronauts, taikonauts, and cosmonauts. They fly overhead more often than you think. All you need to know is when to look.
"Satellite Flybys" turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into an indispensable, field-tested satellite watching tool. It tells you when spacecraft are about to appear (with a countdown clock!), which direction you should face, and even turns down the screen brightness to boost night vision. It also cuts through much confusion. There are thousands of spacecraft in Earth orbit. "Satellite flybys" tells you only about the most interesting and newsworthy objects. Satellite selections are made by Dr. Tony Phillips of spaceweather.com and change when visible objects come and go in the night sky.
Features:
(1) A one week look-ahead schedule of flybys
(2) Active flyby alerts. Your phone or iPod will ring and prompt you to launch the app when a series of interesting flybys are coming up in the next few days.
(3) A flyby countdown clock. This really fun feature helps you know *exactly* when to look.
(4) Pictures and detailed information on each tracked object.
(5) Night vision mode. Watch the countdown clock and read more about the satellite flying overhead--without spoiling your night vision.
Note: We would love to link the flybys to the calendar and alerts in the iPhone as some reviewers have suggested. Unfortunately, we can't. It is not allowed in the iPhone programming environment in OS3.
Note: If you upgraded to OS4 and the app quit working, uninstall the app and reinstall it from iTunes.
What's New in Version 2.0.1
Minor fix to push notification service for ipod touch users, and fixed display issue in FAQ page.
iPhone Screenshots
Customer Reviews
Very Nice!
I've tried some of the other satellite spotting apps and the problem is that after I spot the obvious flyovers (ISS, Hubble, Shuttle), I really don't know what else to look for and the apps don't help me figure that out. This app has a constantly changing set of satellites that is maintained by an expert. That's a huge plus for a casual sky watcher like me. And there is a photo and description of each currently active satellite so I learn something about what I'm looking at. As an educational tool this is by far the best satellite spotting app available.
The upgrades with version 2+ are icing on the cake. The addition of GPS locating and the News page is great!
Misses important fly bus
Disappointing app. Must be using incomplete database. For example, this week where I live the International Space Station, with Shuttle, is passing over every morning and is brightly visible. But this app does not list it as happening. Better solution is to use Safari browser and go to heavens-above.com. There you get complete list of fly overs for you location, along with star maps showing exactly where to look and ground track maps so you can grasp how far away and high up the objects actually are. Further, the 'news' on this app is typically days or even weeks old and the text message notifications are irratic. It has a long way to go to be useful.
Great app, one request
There is not much I can add that hasn't been said already, this is a great app for the casual sky watcher. I have several other sat tracking apps but this one is the one I use most since the data is maintained by the pros.
One request would be some sort of alarm built into the app that could be set to go off a few minutes before a satellite appears. Currently I have to use the iPod alarm, which is cumbersome. Otherwise a great app and worth the price.
- $2.99
- Category: Education
- Updated: Feb 16, 2010
- Version: 2.0.1
- Size: 0.3 MB
- Language: English
- Seller: Finch Consulting LLC
- © 2009 Finch Consulting LLC
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.0 or later
