Google will soon launch a mobile application called Star Droid which could help amateur astronomers to identify the stars & planets on the space. With the help of this app, users can identify stars, planets and various other space elements in the night sky on their Andriod phones.
Star Droid for Android will firstly locate phone position on terra firma via Andriod in-built GPS and then compare your position with space maps to help you locate space objects with relevant name tags and display the object sin your phone viewfinder.
Existing Google Sky allows user to browse the sky just like Google Earth and Google Street View. You can roam between stars, galaxies and other objects of universe. It was created by California based company.
One more application similar to Google Sky is available online i.e., Sky Map, which shows more than 500 million space objects and allows a user to upload the photographs of the districts of the sky and integrate the objects on the map with the objects on the photographs. SDSS, IRAS, and H-Alpha surveys integrated in Sky Map.
Carolin Crawford, of Cambridge University’s Institute of Astronomy, said that it will be more interesting to see how much the phone camera will be able to pick up as the sky is very crowded in night. Venus shines bright in the sky and millions of stars are dim so it may be difficult for a camera-phone to spot the objects.
Google has not mentioned the date of launch of Star Droid but this app will be available free to download from the Android Market.
This application will of great use for the peoples who want to learn more about the universe, stars sky etc. Children can also see the sky objects on their phone instead of reading books and watching photographs in school curriculum. They can practically experience the universe. Now forget about going to planetarium for sky watch.
I was not much interested in Astronomy but curiously waiting for Star Driod and hope to see more applications that utilize the power of GPS and Accelerometer.
