Astromist Review
First of all, I’m not a Professional Astronomer, not even a good amateur one. I just like to observe the sky, try to find some interesting deep sky objects with a borrowed telescope (I belong to a amateur astronomy association, so it’s easy have contact with several types of equipment with no extra cost :-) ) and pass all learned knowledge to the youngsters in regular Planetarium sessions in a local museum. So, this review should not be interpreted has a professional opinion about Astromist but as a user first impression about the software and some of his functions.
About Astromist
The relation between Palm PDA’s and Astronomy is not new. Since Palm Pilot that Astronomers and Software developers work together trying to create better and effective tools for Science and/or leisure. However, because Astronomy has several points of interest and specialization, it’s impossible to reunite all those subjects in one only software. Several programs are specialized in plotting a sky chart, others calculating apparent diameters or rise and set times, some programs are great to make an observation log or Astrophotography assistant. This means that an amateur astronomer has to install (and pay) several programs that normally doesn’t “speak” one each other, obligating the astronomer to entry the same data in all applications.
Astromist come to change this situation and since 2003 that it’s being improved making it one of the best PalmOS Astronomy software that I ever worked.
The tested version is Astromist 2.1 and was launched about a year ago. Astromist is now in version 2.3 with several improvements like the redesigned sky chart, Moon Eclipse Assistant and many other added facilities. The history of Astromist can be viewed here.
Review
Finally, let’s start the review. I tested Astromist during an observation session last weekend and it was my only reference. I didn’t take my book or laptop to the observation site, so all needed information was viewed from my Palm E2. The display images were made today with the help of Snap (freeware).
Astromist has a very intuitive menu, at first, the user is asked to introduce the location data. You must input the data correctly for the program plot and calculate the positions and time accurately. Unfortunately, my town is not listed so I had to add it to the program. The free version of Astromist doesn’t save your data or preferences and is limited on the objects and databases but even so give a very good impression of the capabilities of the registered version. I arranged a registered version from a German colleague, but I didn’t copy all databases because at that time I hadn’t space on my SD card (its megabytes and megabytes of databases… Impressive!). Even so, for my Astronomy needs, just the Messier, NGC and Stars to mag 8 are enough.
The main function of Astromist is the Sky Chart. The user can choose what type of objects can see (planets and messier objects, or just deep sky, etc), change the background colour and ever a night mode that is not 100% effective because of the infamous white border in Palm’s screen. The user can also change the lines that are viewed, selecting the RA grid, constellations lines and ecliptic. There are other options but they are too extensive to write about them one-by-one.
For the moon observers, Astromist have not only the moon phase assistant but also a full moon map with more than 1400 craters and geological formations. The 2.3 version have high resolution images from the moon.
One of my favourite functionality is the Object Chooser. At sky chart mode, the user can tap over an object to read the details and choose another from the same screen. The information provided is very complete, since the Astronomical Coordinates to the recommended eyepiece (to this recommendation be accurate, the user must input the telescope details in the Preferences menu).
Now this functionality will impress all the star/planets gazers. The Planet Assistant. This assistant shows the apparent movement of the planets in the sky, their position in the ecliptic, rise and set times, the Sun View and even Events like eclipses, conjunctions, etc etc! For the more serious astronomer, it displays also the variation thru time of the apparent planet diameter and the position of Jupiter and Saturn moons. There are also many other data that I didn’t had time or knowledge to interpret it correctly.
Other functions: Astromist have also an Observation Log and a Remote Telescope Control that I don’t know how to use it because my Dobson is not motorized. According to the User Manual, it works by Bluetooth to a special device that is attached to the telescope.
Pros: Intuitive, lots and lots of useful functions and information. Planet Assistant is a MUST!
Cons: Functionality implies large amount of memory. The tested version with not even a half of the databases occupied more than 2MB on RAM. Even so, it didn’t crashed or exhausted the DBcache of my E2. Solid Rock.
Conclusion: Astromist is far more the most complete Astronomy program for PalmOS that I ever tested. The 2.3 version has many others features and fixes that might improve even more the Astromist experience. I recommend giving a try. 5 stars.
Link: Astromist
