An Irish computer programmer is behind one of the most popular iPhone applications at the moment, which makes clever use of the phone’s features such as GPS and tilt screen to teach you about astronomy.
John T. Kennedy has come up with the Pocket Universe app (application), which has made it into the iPhone Top 50 Paid Apps list.
His app gives you the ability to hold up your phone and match what is on the screen to what can be seen in front of you in the sky. Image of the iPhone application
The images change as you hold your iPhone or iPod Touch up in front of you, making it easy to match what you see on the screen to the real sky.
Cool features
Besides plotting the position of the Moon and planets in our solar system, it displays 10,000 stars and draws the 88 constellations’ outlines.
Other cool features include:
- A “Show Me” mode for guidance to planets, constellations and stars
- A “Tonight’s Sky” list of meteor showers and visible planets
- A constellation quiz helps you learn your way around the sky
Pocket Universe is available at the iPhones App Store for €2.99.
John writes his iPhone apps in his spare time at home in Dublin, and has a programming and engineering background. He has an MSc (Electronic Engineering) from Queen’s University and has worked with Microsoft in the US, at its global HQ in Redmond.
Learn more
Visit the Pocket Universe website
Read John T. Kennedy’s blog about apps and other programming projects
