Planets By: A.O.

App Review

Title: Planets
Initials: A.O.
Date: March 10, 2011
Grade Audience: All ages
Cost: $0.00
Platform: iTouch, iPhone, iPad

The app I am reviewing is called planets. Planets is a unique app because it shows every constellation and planet that would be in the sky. I chose this app because I love watching the sky at night and finding constellations. The app shows me all of this.

    The first page of the app shows where all of the visible planets and constellations would be in the the north, south, east, and west of the sky from your viewpoint. If you touch one of the planets that are on the screen, it gives you information about the planet such as when it rises and sets. Only the moon and the sun are visible during the daylight hours but if you go on at night, it shows constellations and planets such as Jupiter or Saturn.

    The second page on the app is the sky in 3D. Its shows what it would look like if you turned around in a circle and could see into space. Unlike the first page, it shows every constellation and planet as if you could look into space, not just the ones that are currently visible during the day or night. You can move the screen around to view different parts of the sky. The constellations and planets are all named and clearly shown.

The third page is the visibility of planets. It shows what time of the day all of the planets are visible according to where you are. If you touch one of the planets, a screen will come up telling you all about that one planet such as how big it is compared to the earth, or the nickname of the planet. All planets are visible to you at some time except for Neptune and Uranus which are never visible unless you have a microscope.

The fourth page on this app shows globes. This part of the app shows all of the planets in the solar system including the  the moon. You can rotate all around each planet to see what the planet looks like on the top, bottom, or side. The app shows every crater, cloud,or mountain on every planet.

The last page of the app is the options. On this page, you can either manually type in where you are or the app will find where you are. You can choose the date, time, time zone, and all of the settings.

This app does not cost anything.

    This app is great. The only thing I do not like about the app is that it is hard to understand. It took me a while to figure out what it did and how to use it because it has a lot of different buttons and screens. I think this app could be useful for all ages. I would suggest this for anyone who likes looking at the night sky or studying space.