[From David Ross] A few weeks back my daughter Tegan who's 6 had some homework that involved
finding 6 constellations and following the moons phases. We got a few clear
patches on a couple of nights and I used Planisphere to help me find the
constellations for her to see them. I do a bit of astronomy myself and find
Planisphere good for just placing things and getting my bearings.
There was not that many nights clear for the moon and just how it happened
it was either side of a new moon. This made it really hard The point of the
exercise though was recording what was observed and that's what we did. I
still wanted Tegan to realise what was happening so I used both the
freeware app Moon Phase and Astromtrics Lunar to show the movement of the
phases. It showed Tegan very clearly that on certain days there really was
nothing to see.
That's the beauty of the Palm OS and a lot of the apps. They are clear and
staight forward. There is a range of apps in subjects such as astronomy
that cater for a range from the nildly curious to the diehard fanatic
hobbyist. As planispheres go it ranges from the freware such as Sky Chart
to Astronomist.
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