Hi Gabriel, Regarding my recommendation of the free Sun Seeker Lite app by ozPDA (listed below) to find the elevation and azimuth of the Sun:
Sun Seeker Lite (free) by ozPDA: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sun-seeker-lite/id351836585?mt=8 you further asked: On Apr 27, 2011, Gabriel Battaglia wrote: > Hi Esther. > Wonderful answer and nice app you've suggested. > Many many thanks. > > Do you know something like that but for moon and others solar system planets? > > Thanks. > I'll cc this reply to the macvisionaries list, since it is lengthy and I don't want to have to type this again, or strain to find this in the viphone list archives if someone asks again about this. I assume that the Moon Seeker app ($1.99) from the same developer gives the information about lunar phase and location with comparable accessibility, but I haven't tried it. Sun Seeker (the paid version) was recently listed by AppAdvice as the top app in a new list of Sun Seeker Apps that appeared about a week ago: http://appadvice.com/appguides/show/sun-seeker-apps I tried the free Lite edition. The full edition should let you adjust date and a few other things. It also presumably updates the solstice sun positions for 2011 instead of 2010, although that shouldn't change too much. I'm not sure what you mean by something like this app for the Moon and other solar system planets. If you're asking about other accessible, or partially accessible astronomy apps, there is a "SkySafari Lite" app issued by Carina Software (now renamed Southern Stars). The Lite version is $2.99, but has been offered free on occasion in the past, most recently a couple of weeks ago in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first instance of a manned orbit of the Earth by astronaut Yuri Gagarin. • SkySafari Lite ($2.99) by Carina Software: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skysafari-lite/id321419308?mt=8 Here's the description: "SkySafari Lite is a celestial travel guide. It's an easy-to-use planetarium program app to help you explore the night sky. It is brought to you by Southern Stars, previously the mobile application division of Carina Software." It's a universal binary app, so I have this loaded on my iPad. But here's the brief description. This is a planetarium app, so it comes up with a view of your sky, set for your "Current Location" (top left of screen) and current date and time (top right of the screen). With VoiceOver on, you flick right through those entries at the top, and 5 buttons at the bottom of the screen for "Search", "Info", "Settings", "Time", and "Help". The basic information on how the app works and what its features are accessed via the "Help" button in the bottom right corner. You'll get a list view of topics, including a an entry reviewing "Basic Concepts" like astronomical coordinates, date and time, phases of the moon, etc. This is all accessible, but contains graphics links. So you probably don't want to click on any links in under the explanations, because they just display the graphic that illustrates the point in enlarged fashion, so that it takes up the whole screen. There's quite a lot about planets and their motion, star formation and evolution, galaxies, etc. under the "Basic Concepts". The "Settings" button (3rd of 5, above "Home" button) lets you configure the display. You likely won't use most of these, but you can choose things like your location, default time used for the app's display (current time, sunset, sunrise, moonset, moonrise, etc.) and things like the size of the field of view in the display. Some of this affects the default information that is shown when you double tap the "Info" button (2nd of 5) for detailed information about an object -- like what the azimuth is from your position (given as an angle value, along with a direction, like "East"), and its altitude (along given as an angle, along with a description like "above (or below) horizon"). The object information includes basic data like object name, distance, brief description (e.g. "Moon of Saturn"), brightness, and a section on astronomical coordinates and visibility (alluded to earlier, including rise or set time). There's also a verbal description (e.g. "Mimas is the innermost large Moon of Saturn" with a history of its discovery and properties). Again, in these sections, links are invariably to graphics. If you end up double tapping them, and can't get out, just toggle VoiceOver off with a triple click of the Home button, double tap the center of the screen, then toggle VoiceOver on again with triple click Home. On the iPad, there are two info sections with the basic data and the detailed description. There are "center" and "done" buttons that return you to the main screen. ("Center" puts the object that you are reading about in the center of the screen, and "Done" just returns without updating the screen -- you won't use the display information with VoiceOver.) You probably wont' use the "Info" button so much as the "Search" button (1st of 5, in bottom left corner), which automatically runs out the "Info" for the object you select. You either type in the name of the object you want to look up in the search text field at the top of the screen -- a star name, comet, planet, galaxy etc. -- or flick through (or run your finger down the center of the screen) to read out common object lists (e.g. "planets", "moons", "asteroids", "comets", "named stars", etc.) So if I wanted to find out about a moon of Jupiter, I'd double tap "moons", and then flick down to the entry I wanted (e.g. "Ganymede, moon of Jupiter in Pisces"), and double tap. That would bring up the object info for this this moon. The app is meant to let you select objects by tapping them in the sky view, and then tapping the "Info" button to find out about them, or to let you search through the list or by object name, and then double tapping the "center" button to put that object in the display. The remaining button, "Time" (4th of 5), is also probably not one that you will use. It's meant to let users adjust the time of display by tapping on controls to advance or reverse the current time by years, months, days, hours, and minutes. Again, this is meant to work interactively with the display. If you want to adjust the time, you should do so by double tapping the "Settings" button (3rd of 5), then double tapping the "Date & Time" entry in the list view, and going to the picker item to swipe up or down and choose the month, day and year. If you need to adjust the time, select the "Time" tab (2 of 2) instead of "Date (1 of 2, selected)" by double tapping, and then adjust the picker item for hour, minutes, and AM or PM. There are also buttons for "Now", "Sunset", "Sunrise", etc. These controls are pretty accessible (with the warning on how to recover if you double tap a link to a graphic that will fill your screen, but toggling VoiceOver off, double tapping the center of the screen, and then toggling VO back on.) This is a paid app, though, even in the Lite version, and it wasn't clear what you wanted out of these apps. With the full version of SkySafari, there are options to control telescopes, and other catalogs of objects. Sun Seeker Lite is free, and directly provides the azimuth and elevation information you wanted for the Sun. SkySafari (one word) in both its Lite and Full versions are more aimed at detailed astronomy information. HTH. Cheers, Esther -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
