Learn The Skies With AstroNavigatorII
Oct 24th, 2007 by Tariq Bamadhaj
When I was younger, my dad would point out the stars to me during our camping and fishing trips. He said that I should learn to them in case I were to ever get lost and needed to find directions. For a while, I thought I had it figured out. The 3 sisters, which stars points to the north and how to tell the stars and planets apart. Until I got them pretty mixed up and thought that I would never have a use for them. If only I had VITO’s AstroNavigatorII at that time, things might have been different.
First Look
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| Normal Skin | Night Skin |
The first thing that caught my eye when I used the program was not the extensive amount of information about the stars. Neither was it because of how easy it was to set up and use. While these two are indeed features of AstroNavigatorII that some will come to appreciate, for me, it was the interface that was so intuitive and user-friendly. In fact, this has got to be the most user-friendly interfaces I have ever used.
The buttons are big and you can do everything just by sliding your fingers around the screen. Even searching for the different names of stars, planets and constellations is finger-sliding-easy. The settings are minimal, just enough to configure the program to find your GPS chip and the skin to use. Then again, you do not really need any other settings for such a program.
Usage
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| Search for anything in the skies. Well almost anything. | And choose what appears on your screen. |
It’s fairly easy to navigate your options with this software and the icons are intuitive. From the left, the first one allows you to search for the different planets, stars and constellations our there. I am not sure if it’s a fill list but it sure looks like it. The second button allows you to choose which of these groups of heavenly bodies you want to see. Only interested in finding out where the planets are tonight, then turn off the other 2 options. You can even turn on/off a grid which helps you with viewing (if you know how to use it 
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The third button deals with GPS. Use it to turn your chip on, get your location, and then turn it off. If you do not have a GPS chip or device nearby, you can just slide the scope to your area or any area in the world to view what stars or planets are in view there. Of course this would not be as accurate as entering co-ordinates, something which VITO Technology might want to consider adding in the next version.
The last button is where you go for Options such as About, Registration, Skins and GPS settings to name a few. I particularly like the skin. Imagine you are watching the stars at night. The last thing you want is the bright screen of your PDA to blind you in the darkness. With the Night Skin selected, you’ll be able to prevent that and your device blends into the background. Try it to see what I mean.
Main Screen
When you are on the main screen, you will see your selection of heavenly bodies. If you would like a closer view, just slide your fingers up (or down if you want to zoom out). The scrolling is very smooth on my Eten Glofiish X500. You could also slide your fingers across the map to view other stars and planets around you. However, this might not be necessary because the AstroNavigatorII claims to be able to track your direction based on the GPS chip and will adjust the screen accordingly to show you the stars and planets that you should see. I could not get it to work on my device but it could be due to an older chipset. Maybe you’ll have better luck on yours?
Summary
Pros:
- Large buttons that make navigating the program so easy and fun.
- GPS support to accurately pinpoint location and show stars and planets viewable from that location.
- Night mod/skin which makes using the device at night more pleasing to the eye.
- Able to follow your viewing direction with newer GPS chip.
Cons:
- Unable to select location by co-ordinate input makes selection of position without GPS chip very inaccurate.
Conclusion
VITO’s AstroNavigatorII is definitely a useful software to have if you are out camping or just outside. It is not for everyone but if you are not sure you are going to enjoy star-gazing, your can give the trial a go. It works for 20 minutes after which you will either have to uninstall it or register it. If you can’t wait to own it, it’s currently being sold for $19.95.
What has your experience with AstroNavigatorII been?
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I just tried it on your recommendation, and didn’t like it at all. First, the annoying background images seem impossible to turn off. Second, too much eye candy! The stars have little asterisms around them, for instance, and the sun is a huge glowing glob. Useless for eclipses, twilight, sun rise/set, or any other standard astronomy program functions. Third, there’s no selectable magnitude limit. Also no ephemeris for any objects (unless I missed it?)
However: the smooth screen scrolling on my X500+ is really really nice! Almost makes up for the rest of the problems.
I think it’s not a “serious” astronomy program, but for fun it’s not bad. For a more serious alternative, try Nomad’s Pocket Stars (http://www.nomadelectronics.com/)
Hi Gary
Thanks for bringing up the points. I am sure the developer will find them useful. The developer tells me that you can use your GPS and turn on the digital compass and the screen will only show you what you can see based on your position and direction. So if you turn, the screen will turn as well. I am going to try it out and see if it works for me and maybe you can try for yourself too.
As for whether it being a serious astronomy program, I am in no position to say that, based on my lack of knowledge of the stars to begin with. But what I can say is that if developers could incorporate the engine behind AstroNavigatorII in their own programs, it would make for much better user experience.
Dear Gary Oberbrunner,
Thank you very much for your comment. You get it right when you say that AstroNavigator II is ” not a “serious” astronomy program”. We always try to keep things easy, here at VITO. This too much eye candy, as you call it, helps a regular user feel confident when he looks in the night sky fro the first time, and finally they find themselves interested in astronomy - just because they can finally recognize the stars or planets above them. I’ve learnt my horoscope constellation (cancer) this way myself and finally started to recognize the Great Bear (Ursa Major).
I completely agree with you when you advise Pocket Stars as a serious alternative. I would also add that the latter is more for professionals unlike AstroNavigator II. We tried here Pocket Stars and could not figure out what to do in half an hour, so just uninstalled it. The impression was - a lot of features but you really don’t know what to do with them all and what are they for. So, when you say “selectable magnitude limit” or “ephemeris” - these words make me shiver. With AstroNavigator II you are ready to go just after the first launch, maybe because there’s not much to choose. I think the applet manages great with its main task: teach people the basics of astronomy in a fun and exciting way to be on short terms with the universe.
I don’t agree about AstroNavigator II being “useless for eclipses, twilight, sun rise/set”. You can see eclipses from the past and future if you are not lucky enough to watch the actual sun eclipse. All you need to do is to set the date, time and choose a location. I’ll forward the screenshots with visible sun eclipses or sunsets to Tariq, maybe he’ll update the review sometime. I think it’s a good idea to include the time of sunset/rise though into AstroNavigator II.
Hi Konstantin
Thank you for your thoughts and input on this. I will definitely be doing another short write up on this soon. Just that it has been raining the last couple of days over here which makes star-gazing almost impossible.
Your points are very good — I think your idea of targeting the casual user is very sensible! “What is that bright thing I see in the sky?” For me, I’m a more advanced amateur astronomer, so I’m sorry if I seemed too condescending. I should have noticed you’re trying to bring more people to astronomy, which is a wonderful thing! So definitely thanks for that.
And yes, I agree with your comments about Pocket Stars; the UI layout is not always as sensible and intuitive as it ought to be. It confused me too. There’s definitely room for improvement there.
Actually, my favorite pocket astronomy program ever was http://www.aho.ch/pilotplanets/ — it had a brilliant UI, and a very clever screen for showing where things are in the sky with a circle for compass direction and a nearby semicircle for elevation. Too bad he’s not working on a Windows Mobile version; but maybe that’s also an opportunity for you.
If you ever want to make a more “pro” type program and can keep the beautiful smooth scrolling and nice interface you have in AstroNavigator II, I’ll be the first in line!
Gary, we’ll definitely think about a more “pro” version of AstroNavigator II. Meanwhile I suggest you to google for astromist - this is something you should be really happy with as the advanced amateur astronomer.
Tariq, look forward to seeing the write up on AstroNavigator II. And rain really? You’re lucky, we here have a lot of snowing already and it doesn’t mealt anymore
Hi Konstatin — thanks for the pointer! Wow, you’re right, Astromist has everything you could think of. But it still doesn’t scroll as smoothly as AstroNavigator!
(Of course maybe I just haven’t found the option yet; it’s a huge program.)