Pocket Universe - Astronomy App Reviews

Too bad that the latest version do not uses the compass any more.

Although one screenshot led me to believe that the starmap was superimposed on top of the camera output, bit it seems that its just a 360 view static picture. This is tha one crowning feature that would make this app 5 stars or more.... Overall great information, nice compass feature (when the compass works) and nice design.

Its a very very good idea to integrate other languages. But please check the words you are adding! You switched the german sunset and sunrise for example. And please give the user the chance to choose the language, so that i can use English again.

Nice design, useful information e.g. indication of azimuth and elevation, but absolutely amazing is the displayed information on the position of Jupiters and Saturns moons! Another nice feature is the prediction of the ISS location.

Please Update next Time German Language thanks.

The best app yet. Well worth the cost. It is hard to believe an app this complex would work on an itouch.

This thing is so incredibly awesome and totaly worth 3.00!!!!!!!!

Very fun and useful tool for budding backyard astronomers like myself. The personalized time and location settings make it incredibly easy to locate and identify everything.

The tracking can be a bit glitchy if you are near buildings but what a great app. It uses both the compass and the GPS to update the phone position to track where the phone is in space both north south east west but also the angle of attack as you raise your arm higher overhead... Its really very good. You can turn on and off labels, horizons, objects etc very easily. The easiest way to learn the constellations. Nice app.

Its a good app it helped me fined a lot of stuff but every now and then it crashes on me like when I wanted to fined my location it crashed. So once you fix this problem I will give you the other star.

I really like this application, but it has problems and needs more work. For starters, it does not seem to locate me correctly. "Find Me" insists that I am in Moose Jaw, rather than Saskatoon, a difference of some 230 km! The programme crashed at times. Resetting and aligning is not the problem; the problem is with the software. Please fix it.

Beautiful app! But soooo many bugs!

Looking forward to improvements in the magnometer performance. Great job overall tho and worthy of 5 stars

Tried rebooting, reinstalling, clearing as much memory as possible, yet the app crashes seconds after trying to launch it. Using latest firmware as directed.

This is so amazing! Updates have made it stable and the tracking is fantastic!

I agree with the previous user. The app crashes as soon as u open it on the iTouch. Im on OS 4.0. Please fix this.

After months of updates using a 3G iPhone this app leaves countious doubt that it will ever perform as designed.

I use a couple of astronomy apps because none seems to have the "perfect" combination of functions. I use Pocket Universe most, but it still lacks a few essentials that Ill list below. Pocket Universe pros: "Visible" page; a quick and easy way to find out which solar system planets are visible, and the ability to see changes by fast-forwarding through time. Set observing location using lat/long, gps, pick from list, pick from map. Lunar phase calendar. Moon map identifying about 30 lunar features. Jupiter/Saturn moons location diagram. Educational quizzes are great for learning and becoming more familiar with the night sky. Tonights sky; a quick overview of visible planets, ephemeris data for main stars, moon phase and special events. Portrait/landscape modes. Use current time, manually set time and fast-forward through time at different preset speeds. Contextual information on objects; doesnt bother with the advanced scientific mumbo-jumbo that I dont care about, just the useful stuff such as name, rise/set, alt/az, mag and brief description. Ability to set limiting magnitude for displayed objects. Turn guides on/off (ecliptic, grids, labels). Unobstrusive constellation lines. Night mode. Pocket Universe cons: Status line displays only ra/dec; would like the ability to display alt/az instead (without having to use the cumbersome red sights). Biggest drawback: lots of stars displayed (9000+ based on selected limiting magnitude), but information limited to a handful of major stars (i.e. only 2 stars in Ursa Minor); need info on a larger selection, at least every star that makes up the constellation lines, even the free version of Distant Suns has more information. Would like to have the ability to select an object and have it remain centered while moving through time while the background moves; from what Ive found so far, only Star Walk does that. No way to turn off the target symbol; would prefer if double-tap was used for that instead of zooming increments. Other comments: Not visually appealing like Star Walk and Starmap. I give it 4 stars until it gets updated to display information on more stars.

After having this app for some time Ill say Im disappointed. Its just not accurate, period.

Except for a few sentences, it is important to know that this App is not really available in Czech, Dutch, French, German, Japanese and Swedish. It is in English ONLY. It is also important to know that this App contains many bugs.