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Luminos - Astronomy for iOS

       iOS Universal

Awarded Best Stargazing App 2012 in Tap! Magazine's 100 Best iOS Apps Ever!

Demonstration and tutorial videos now online at: http://www.youtube.com/user/wobbleworksluminos

Luminos brings the universe to you with the detail and power previously reserved for the best desktop applications. It delivers full-featured astronomy, including the largest catalogs available. All features are included, with no additional purchases necessary. The same app functions on both iPhone and iPad, but optimized for each device.

Luminos renders textured 3D planets and moons, constellations, and deep space catalogs and imagery. Deep space objects appear as familiar star chart representations, properly sized and aligned, while images are positioned and scaled to their actual position in the sky. All celestial objects include detailed position and catalog information. Zoom in on any object for a better view.

With a simple gesture, Luminos will engage a motion tracking mode that allows you to point your device in any direction and match up your view with the actual sky. Motion tracking supports full rotation at any angle, ensuring you can identify objects even when they're directly overhead. (note that the motion tracking feature is not available on iPod Touch as those devices lack the necessary compass hardware)

With a few taps you can fly to any planet and view it from a high orbit, or touch down and see the universe from another world. See our own planet from a new perspective by riding along on the International Space Station or any other satellite and serenely watch the world go by. Smooth animations and highly tuned performance keep exploration fun.

View over 2,500,000 stars, tens of thousands of galaxies, nebulas, asteroids, comets and satellites from anywhere. Explore more than 14,000 surface feature labels covering the planets and moons, showing you all notable locations in the solar system. Browse 5,000 years of solar and lunar eclipses with interactive maps.

If you are a telescope user, connect Luminos to your Meade, Celestron, Astrophysics, iOptron, or LX200-compatible mount to control your scope directly from the app.

Luminos provides many utilities for customizing and optimizing your viewing experience. Observation lists give you complete control over planning your evening viewing sessions. Telescope tools allow you to manage your inventory and help you select the best optics for your target. Full night vision mode lets you browse the sky without affecting your low light eye adaptations, and is adjustable on the fly.

Real 3D terrain shows the actual horizon around you which allows you to quickly determine what you can see while out stargazing; the lunar calendar helps you determine the best times for viewing by showing you illumination levels, rise, set, and transit for both Luna and Sol.

With easy navigation features and an intuitive interface, you'll never be lost as you tour the cosmos.

What's new

New feature: Satellites show their apparent or actual orbits when selected
New feature: Previously selected objects can be re-selected by swiping to the right on the selection bar
New feature: Comets, asteroids, and satellites have a distinctive dot to make them easy to discern from stars
New feature: Telescope control includes a setting for adjusting the polling rate
New feature: Notes can be added to surface features (craters, etc…)
New feature: Full-scene antialiasing is enabled for iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 2 and iPad Mini, and iPod Touch 5th generation
New feature: The Browser now opens to its last location instead of always opening at the root level
New feature: Action icons display the action name briefly when the icon is tapped
New feature: The Earth shows a night texture when viewed from space
New feature: Center and Zoom actions explain that they're not usable while in orbit
New feature: Satellites have links to articles at the National Space Science Data Center
New feature: IAU surface features data updated to late March 2013
New feature: Surface features have article links to the IAU Gazetteer
Bug fixed: Comet, asteroids and satellites are scaled correctly for retina displays
Bug fixed: Messier and Caldwell objects which don't have entries in the built-in deepspace catalogs no longer show zero for their coordinates
Bug fixed: Satellite selection highlight no longer sometimes becomes detached from the satellite when very close to the viewer
Bug fixed: "Rendered" checkmark is now retina-resolution and has better contrast
Bug fixed: Pinch-zooming no longer sometimes becomes sluggish when the camera is animating
Bug fixed: Restoring Luminos from a backup after having set Tycho 2 as the rendered star catalog no longer causes stars to be untappable
Bug fixed: Performance of eclipse maps is improved
Bug fixed: Battery Saver feature is effective when rendering satellites, asteroids or comets
Bug fixed: Text describing eclipse center is positioned correctly
Bug fixed: Eclipse map background renders correctly when view flipping is active
Bug fixed: Renaming observation items updates the name in the sky view and selection bar
Bug fixed: Asteroids remember their "rendered" setting across launches

Screenshots

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Last changed:

Jun 04, 2013

Category:

Education

Developer:

Wobbleworks LLC

Version:

7.2

Average Rating:

4.50 (19)

Size:

107.1 MB

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