![]() ![]() It might seem that and android, iPad or iPhone app is the best tool since you can take it with you. We want to know where to look to observe a particular phenomenon like the Geminid Meteor shower.We are going to go to an unfamiliar place with a latitude that is very different from where we normally gaze at the night sky.Even though we know the night sky pretty well, we still need to be able to find faint objects, or find objects in less than dark skies – the Milky Way, for example is difficult to see unless conditions are good and the sky is dark.We want to take a shot with a particular sky object behind a particular landmark.We have some familiarity with some of the constellations, but we want to learn more.We are a beginner and we really don’t know Canis Major from Major Appliances.Let’s start with determining why we want something to help us with our night sky navigation. Some scenarios to consider include: Why Do We Want Something Besides our Eyes? We’ll make the case for a paper (or plastic) planisphere in a moment. But ultimately we find the good old fashioned planisphere to be the most effective for most of what we want to do. In fact we DO use several apps for forecasting and navigating the night sky. We take exception to the “there is an app for that” assertion… but perhaps not for the obvious reason. Whenever we suggest purchasing a paper Planisphere our critics remind us that they are not necessary because “there is a great app” to do that. A topic that comes up a lot is discussion about what makes a good astronomy helper application. ![]()
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