Our Phases of the Moon App is Now a Lunar Atlas

We’ve done a major update to our Phases of the Moon app for iPhone/iPad and Android, finally fulfilling the most requested feature: a Lunar Atlas.

You can now pinch-zoom the Moon and two-finger pan it around. As you zoom the Moon beyond a certain size, labels for lunar features will appear, like major craters, Apollo landing sites and lunar seas (mare). As you zoom in more, smaller features become visible. Now that we’ve figured out how to actually implement this functionality, we’ll keep improving it, to make Phases of the Moon a really handy tool for stargazing, especially when you’re using a telescope.

There are lots of other features we’ve recently added including: total lunar eclipses, Live Wallpaper and Widgets (for Android), social sharing, and more.

You can download the iPhone/iPad version here.

Or you can access the Android version here.

Either app costs only $.99 and helps support the costs of Universe Today.

P.S. If you’ve already got either app, please take a second and give us a review on iTunes or Google Play. Every little bit helps.

6 Replies to “Our Phases of the Moon App is Now a Lunar Atlas”

  1. I’m not sure what I’d put in a review. I really liked the first version of the app, but had to uninstall it because it took up too much memory on my phone and I couldn’t move it to the SD card. The latest version needs Android 2.3 and I’ve got 2.2 so now I can’t install it any more. But for those who have the right hardware/software, I’d recommend it.

  2. That sounds awesome, I can’t wait to explore the new features! Thanks for all the hard work!

    Off topic: I have an app idea and no idea who to pitch it to. I don’t have the time or skills to do it myself, but I believe it would be very popular, and I’d be thrilled to be able to contribute to a Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaign for it.

    The idea is rather basic: Simulate the current view of Earth from the ISS.

    We’ve seen some stunning time lapse videos from astronauts aboard ISS, and while this couldn’t compare to those, it’d still be fascinating to watch, *especially* as a “Live Wallpaper” on Android (how awesome would that be as a background?!).

    The Google Earth APIs and Google Earth’s “Cloud layer” will probably be all you need to generate the actual imagery, the rest will likely be UI design, I think.

    Thoughts? Suggestions?

  3. I just bought this app for my Samsung Galaxy Stellar. I cant seem to zoom in on the Moon and see the lunar features. doesn’t allow me to pinch & zoom. curious, hmm.

  4. Is it at all possible to fix the advertisement for this app? Whenever I read any Universe Today story on my Android phone “PHASES OF THE MOON” expands to fit the entire screen.

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