Sky+Star+Finder+to+View+Sky+Stars+Night

//The Sky Star Finder to View Sky Stars Night// app, available through the Apple App Store, is designed for Apple products with iOS 7.0 or later (limited to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch). The purpose of this app, per its description is to "enable you to identify the stars, planets, galaxies, constellations and even satellites you can see above." The app, like many of its competitors, turns your device into a "lens" and wherever you point it, the objects displayed on your phone screen are what supposedly lie light years away from it. It's a free app, buried far below the other constellation finding apps (both free and those with a fee), which is not surprising given the two star rating it has received from a whopping total of four reviewers.

Due to the level (or lack of) features in this app, it's safe to conclude that it was designed for backyard astronomers or those with only the vaguest interest in identifying what's in the sky. With other products (free included) out there that have a much slicker appearance, I don't imagine anyone but an interested novice would try to use this app. Given this app's lack of features, crude layout, and lag time, I would not recommend it unless there were no other options and an interested individual was completely destitute (yet somehow still in possession of a smart phone). With half a dozen other easily accessible apps out there that are just as free, this app offers no benefit over its competitors, while offering several stark disadvantages. Chief among these is the layout and design of this app. The display is more akin to Pong than anything else designed in the 21st century (not to mention something designed for an iPhone). Constellations have a pattern of looking like they fell out of a Super Nintendo game rather than a modern graphic artist's rendering. Because of the poor-value interface, icons that should have an obvious meaning are obscured and must be tapped to determine their true purpose. There is also a bizarrely out of place feature that allows you to see your position on Earth from outer space. Only if there were some kind of desert island scenario in which one had to choose between this app or being struck blind would its possession make sense.

EVALUATION: 2.4/5 Ease of Use: 4 (This is the one area this app scores well. It does what it purports itself to do: when pointed, stars, planets, etc. relative to that position, are displayed. Minus one star because of a lag time that makes me reminisce about the Compaq my family owned in 1996). Content Accuracy: 2 (The information presented does appear, surprisingly, to be somewhat accurate. But the catch is it only seems to pick up incredibly bright objects in the negative apparent magnitude range. So much so to the point that your eyes could quite possibly pick out a dim object that this app has no knowledge of). Cost: 2 (Free; however, a severe lack of refinement and a simple yet clumsy layout make this feel like a bad deal despite its "price." This feeling is greatly amplified when compared to a competitor app like //Skyview.)// Relevancy to Astronomy: 3 (Astronomy, being the study of celestial objects, is quite related to studying them even from the comfort of an iPhone. But since so little can be observed, it seems silly to call this greatly relevant when it performs so poorly). Interest: 1 (Standing beside its competitors, this app could only be considered interesting by someone because it relates to astronomy. Plus one because finding satellites is fun, [but rather irrelevant on the whole] ).

The four poor reviewers I mentioned earlier were not wrong. Stay away from this app and you'll be better off for it.