Review: Starmap for iOS – A Complete Guide to the Night Sky

Some simply stare at the night sky and ponder their place in the universe. Others stare at the night sky and want to know the place of other things in the universe. Starmap (iPhone), and it’s more feature rich brethren, Starmap Pro (iPhone) and Starmap HD (iPad), are for both of those types of people.

Overview

Of the many useful features of the iPhone and iPad, two important ones are the GPS and compass. When you’re using Starmap to unlock the puzzles of the night sky, it uses these features to know where you’re at, and what direction and elevation you’re looking at.

You can use Starmap as simply a reference to know what stars you’re gazing at as you sit under the night sky, by panning it up, down, left and right to see a detailed on-the-fly representation of what you’re looking at, or you can use it to learn more information about what you’re viewing, and find out when and where certain planets or constellations will be visible. With the Pro and HD versions, additional features allow you to explore the sky above in greater detail, also allowing you to set alarms, and control telescopes and cameras via the app.

Starmap has information on 350,000 stars in the basic app, 2,500,000 in Pro, and 2,900,000 in the HD version. Catalogs range from SAO Partial on basic, up to Full SAO, Tycho 2, HD, and Hipparcos on Pro and HD.

I particularly enjoy the information available from the apps. The ability to tap a planet you’re viewing and bring up an information screen is invaluable to the beginning stargazer, and seasoned astronomer alike.

One feature I particularly like on the HD version is that it uses the larger real estate of the iPad screen to display more info, even allowing you to view the Wikipedia page for the body you are viewing. This is very useful for a stargazing novice, or someone like myself who used to be an amateur astronomer back in my teens, but has let that knowledge fall into the depths of his long unused brain cells.

The basic version does have a large amount of features, however the more serious you are about this subject, the more likely you are to appreciate the added features of the iPhone “Pro” edition, and the iPad “HD” edition.

Comparison Chart

A chart showing a comparison of the features between the versions can be found below.

Starmap Starmap Pro Starmap HD
Target Device
All iPod Touch,
All iPhones
All iPod Touch,
All iPhones
All iPads
Number Of Stars
350,000 2,500,000 2,900,000
Catalogues
SAO Partial Full SAO. Tycho 2. HD. Hipparcos Full SAO. Tycho 2. HD. Hipparcos
Double Stars
No 1300 WDS Entries 1300 WDS Entries
Double Star Diagrams
No Yes Yes
Max Magnitude
10 (peaked at 8 ) 16 (peaked at 15) 16 (peaked at 15)
Min Field of View
13.8 4’5″ 4’5″
Number of Stars with Information
250 8900 8900
Number of Comets
None 791 791
Number of Asteroids
50 470,000 470,000
Comets and Asteroids can be updated within the application.
Dwarf Planets
Yes Yes Yes
Wikipedia Links
No No Yes
Deep Sky Objects
110 Messier
100 Abbel
Clusters
110 Messier
7840 NGC (full)
5386 IC (full)
300 Abbel
Clusters
Caldwell (full)
110 Messier
7840 NGC (full)
5386 IC (full)
300 Abbel
Clusters
Caldwell (full)
Nebula Outlines
Yes Yes Yes
Tonight’s Sky
Yes Yes Yes
Compass Support
Yes Yes Yes
Catalogue Search
Yes Yes Yes
Web Catalogue
No Yes Yes
12 Millions references from Simbad
Night Vision
Yes Yes Yes
Time Slider
Yes Yes Yes
Eye Piece View
No Yes Yes
Optics Manager
No Yes Yes
Eye Pieces, Barlows, Focal Reducers, Finders, Reticles, Cameras, Telescopes
Planet Satelites
Yes Yes Yes
Twilight Views
No Yes Yes
Visibility Along The Year
No No Yes
Featured Objects
No Yes Yes
Meteor Zones
Yes Yes Yes
Telrad
No Yes Yes
GPS
Yes Yes Yes
Accelerometer Control
Yes Yes Yes
Map Colors
Yes Yes Yes
Video out Support
No No Yes
Editable Menu
No Yes Yes
Alarms
No Yes Yes
Photo Timers
No Yes Yes
Notes
No Yes Yes
Finder Arrow
Yes Yes Yes
Custom locations
Yes Yes Yes
Languages
French, Spanish, English, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Suomi, Portuguese.

Conclusion

For the casual stargazer, or the serious astronomy buff, Starmap offers something on every level. Casual information about the night sky is quickly available, as are additional features in the Pro and HD versions that allow you to explore the sky above in even greater detail.

Starmap is a full featured, nicely laid out app, with numerous features to help you explore the fascinating world of astronomy.  There are more features on the different versions than I would have time to explore if I had used them for a week, much less the time frame I had for this review. I highly recommend them to stargazers of all knowledge and skill levels.

Starmap ($11.99, link) and Starmap Pro ($18.99, link) for the iPhone, and Starmap HD for the iPad ($18.99, link) are available immediately from the App Store.

Rating: 4/5[rating:4]

Pros

  • The huge amount of information available to the user
  • Ease of use
  • Extensive help screens
  • Ability to alter the display to match your viewing conditions

Cons

  • Would like to see a beginner mode, with with a step-by-step tutorial available to first time users
  • The price seems high at first, but once I explored the apps, I could see the value of the work that has gone into them
Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.