Be an ATV couch-docking operator for ESA

Posted on Thursday, April 12, 2012 by Jeroen

Become a tablet astronaut with ESA’s ATV docking lessons on your own tablet:

Do you have what it takes to be an astronaut? ESA is making actual astronaut training available on your computer and tablet, so you can see for yourself.

ESA’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle, ATV Edoardo Amaldi, has safely docked with the International Space Station. ATV is the largest supply ship to fly to the Space Station. A truly international team effort, ATV-3 brought fresh food, fuel and supplies to the Station. … (ESA)

Download the Cortona3D viewer from the App shop and load the two ATV demos.

Angry Birds in vacuum

Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 by Jeroen

So we’re not all serious science here. Although…… the physics are correct, so NASA and Angry Birds claim. Download for your phone or tablet and find out how to destroy a pig, circle a moon and get the rest of the points at the second orbit. And so on – and so on. (Angry Birds Space)

More iPad astro apps

Posted on Tuesday, December 20, 2011 by Jeroen

Yesterday I posted a short review of the Redshift App. Of course there’s more to get. On my iPad I have the following astronomy related apps:

Planetarium apps: Redshift, Sky Safari, Star Walk,Solar Walk;

Atlas apps: Moon Globe HD, Mars Globe HD, Google Earth

Info/eBooks: NASA Visualization Explorer, ESA, Hubble Top 100, Journey to the Exoplanets.

Follow the various links for more information.

Redshift App for iOS

Posted on Monday, December 19, 2011 by Jeroen

With Windows, Windows Mobile and Android in my home I had to add an Apple to the bunch. A few months ago I acquired an iPad2 because the Samsung Tab took too long to arrive and wasn’t available in 64GB (over here).

With the acquisition of Jobs’ legacy came a plethora of apps astronomy related. Almost all of them -paid and free – are worth your while if you’re into astronomy as a hobby.

Redshift was not only my first serious astronomy program, it was also the very first CD-ROM I bought, somewhere back in 1994 or 1995. So I was delighted when I found the app in the iTunes store. You get a full planetarium program with the possibility to scan the skies from your current position by simply pointing the iPad to the sky if necessary supported by the built-in camera. A feature most programs in the class have.

What they don’t normally have is the possibility to click and travel to an object you select, like in popular programs for the PC like Celestia.There’s some basic info about the object you selected, but there’s also a direct link to Wikipedia via an in-app browser.

Features include night vision, Telrad support, a variety of backgrounds, filters and of course a search function. Worth the money.