Win ‘Star Walk’ and ‘Solar Walk’ Astronomy Apps

by Nancy Atkinson on September 7, 2010

I’ve had a couple of people excitedly show me the Star Walk astronomy app on their iPhones and ipads, and it really is great. You can hold your device up to the sky and it will show you a sky map of your exact position. Move your device around the sky, and it moves with you. It is a very high quality, dynamic and realistic stargazing guide, which — if you are a beginning or experienced astronomer — makes skywatching easy for everybody! There is also a “Solar Walk” app — which has very cool 3D images, so grab your 3D glasses to fully enjoy. See more about this app below.

With Solar Walk, you can find out more about the solar system, play around with them determining the speed of their rotation, etc, as well as learn about the moons of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Uranus.

Now comes the good news for anyone who reads this article all the way through! Universe Today has 3 free Star Walk and 3 free Solar Walk apps to give away.

Leave a comment on which app you would like to have, and why. I’ll pick the best answers and the top three for each app will win. You have to register to leave a comment, and make sure you register with your actual email address, as that is how we’ll contact the winners. Deadline for this contest is Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 12 noon CDT in the US, and the contest is open to anyone, anywhere in the world. Each winner can only win one app.

Tagged as: Astronomy, iPhone apps, Solar System, Solar Walk, Star Walk

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  • jar

    I’d like to have the Solar Walk app because these tools are priceless in teaching the way things look on the sky to people deep in a city. The light pollution in toronto makes it very difficult to show what a constellation looks like, or where a globular cluster is on the sky. With this app I could simply pull my phone out and hold it up to the sky and show them exactly where the object is, and what stars we can and cannot see. Particularly useful on public viewing nights!

  • Gylraen

    I already enjoy Sky Walk nearly every day and would love to complete my collection of these wonderful apps with solar walk :-)

  • tegwilym

    I have Star Walk on my iPod Touch. Very nice software! I don’t need two of them, and the fact that I live in Seattle, Solar Walk would be really nice since I haven’t seen enough sun this summer! Good excuse?

    Tom

  • sbike

    I’ve not used Sky or Solar walk. But for anyone with an android device I recommend Google Sky, it seems to have very similar functionality. If anyone has used both please comment.

  • cottonchopper

    I’d like to have the Star Walk app. I have been interested in astronomy since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I have been trying to introduce my wife to it as well and I think the Star Walk app would be a great way to help demonstrate what I am trying to show her.

  • ToSeek

    Over Labor Day weekend, I was at an outdoor picnic that extended after nightfall and blew people away by pulling out my iPad with the the “Star Walk” app on it.

  • mcdan333

    I’d love to have a copy of “Star Walk”. With my kids’ noses constantly glued to their iPod touches, this would be a great way to get them outside with their noses (and iPods) pointed UP.

  • Mechman

    I am one of 3 or 4 centre members who are active with astronomy promotion here in Thunder Bay. This has kept me busy over the summer with park visits, and GA travel etc. I am very tech saavy, and the starwalk program would allow me to show the next generation of amateur astronomers something that is pretty ‘cool’ as they now say, while trying to show them where things are in the sky. It also might save me from knocking out a pilot inadvertantly with my green laser – if I can show them on the screen, then there is no need for a pointer! :-) Just kidding – I make sure I look first…besides, half the year it is too cold for those darn pointers to work anyhow!!

  • kkp

    Both apps sound great. I am, and have been for some time, on the verge of buying my first telescope. Maybe a app that eases me into what’s out there to see will do the trick…finally. :)

  • auraaguiar

    I am a portuguese teacher, in Bragança, Portugal. I teach Astronomy/Nature for 13/14 years old pupils. I think “Solar Walk” app very usefull and my school hasn’t much money for this tecnology. Thank you. Aura Aguiar

  • tost

    I’d like to win Solar Walk so I can show chicks how cool the solar system is without having to drag my scopes out.

  • LittleGreenMen

    I’d like to win Star Walk, to show my kids how fun and exciting science really is. I’d like to show them that their iPhones CAN be used for more than just texting, talking, and playing video games. Get them outside, looking up, and asking questions!

  • kyuusei

    I’d love to have SolarWalk… I have StarWalk and it’s my favourite iPhone app, especially when I look at the sky and have no clue whats stars and planets I’m looking at. Plus I’m a third year astronomy major, so I feel like I really should know these things.

  • Greg

    I have two daughters, and the oldest one is 8 and has a mild form of autism. Her interests are mercurial and she prefers a sedentary lifestyle, but she is highly intelligent. From the age of 3, just after she learned to talk she has taken a tremendous interest in the solar system. One of my fondest memories is painting a scale mobile with her and hanging it on her ceiling. Before she was 4 she had already memorized all of the planets names in order and is able to recognize them by sight. She has gone on to take an interest in the planet’s moons and as of last year she watched a special on the big bang with fascination and curiosity. I got her the exoplanet app. for our ipad which she has taken an avid interest in. I am quite sure she would be thrilled to add either the solar walk or star walk app. to it. I believe it would be great to further her interests in a productive field of science which I also appreciate and enjoy. Perhaps even our little daughter will be drawn into it as well, as she has a tremendous aptitude with the ipad. We also have an iphone.

  • wega

    I’d love to win the Star Walk app! The reason? well, i’m a physics student who chose to major in physics because of astronomy! The universe is the reason why I started to get involved in science. The idea of such beauty outside this planet, over my head, was inspiring. All I wanted to do was to get all the knowledge I could get in order to understand a little bit better the universe. Right now I still feel that passion runnng through my veins. Every time I stare at the night sky, every time I read a new article in Universe Today, every day I talk to my friends about what I’ve read, I feel this passion filling my mind. However, right now I’m deciding about what I’d like to master in, and I’m choosing between astrophysics and medical physics. So, the thing is… I’m trying to find “points” in order to choose astrophysics over medical physics and with Star Walk App I can picture myself in winter nights gazing the night sky and remembering myself why I fell in love with the Universe and its mysteries so many years ago.

  • toutatis

    I’d like to win the Star Walk app so that I can enjoy myself a bit before the world ends in 2012. And if the world doesn’t end after all then at least I’ll know all the constellations. And that will surely help me in figuring out where I am should the Earth’s axis and all the continents have shifted after the Great Cataclysm! :)

  • Peterba

    I’d love to have Star Walk. I bought an ipad last month which I share with my seven and five year old! It just happens that we are venturing into the excitement of astronomy together and this would be a fantastic app to help us cement a greater knowledge of the sky not to mention making me the coolest dad on the block.

  • datruf

    I would greatly appreciate winning a copy of Solar Walk. I already have a star map app that I use constantly for planning observing sessions as well as sharing with people at our local public nights. Solar Walk would be another great tool for getting others excited about our solar system. It could also be a lot of fun to play with on those cloudy Ohio nights. Bonus: Solar Walk would also be a great gift, and my birthday is 9/9.

  • Paradiz

    Hi, those applications are just the things i always wanted to have when i go looking at the night sky with my telescope. Astronomy is my passion since i was very little. I remember at that time when i was lying on the grass with my contalation book and a head torch looking at constalations in the book and then trying to find them on the starry night sky. Now that i’m a bit older (i’m a student at the moment) i go out almost every week with my telescope if its not cloudy (in my country sky is ussualy cloudy). Most of the time also my friends come with me and we stay there for hours searching the night sky. I dont have the that auto-tracking telescope so everything i’m trying to watch i do by hand. Sometimes i also print the positions of planets or nebulas and galaxies for the night i went watching the sky so having something like this is just mindblowing. At those spots where i go to watch the night sky with my telescope i also meet people from time to time who also want to take a look through the telescope so of course i let them and i want to show them that astronomy is really interesting, educational and fun. With these app everything would be so much easier not just for myself but for the others too that i want to bring astronomy closer to them. For the applications i would prefer star walk because for now i can watch most of the planets through my telescope but that nebulas and galaxies are a bit harder to find but solar walk is also amazing application. If you will choose me i would be really gratefull.

  • jtrench

    I don’t have the iphone or ipad, but I have been debating about whether to get one or not, and if I were to win a star walk app, that would push me over the edge!

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