Great post! THX!
*if you know where to look...*
I must say, in the past; I would have to arm myself w/ countless reference books when going out to the night sky. In of itself, that was very labor-intense. And was anyone’s guess of *where-to-look*.
My son got me a smart phone [ reluctant that I was, at first ...hey what was wrong with the little flip phone..it did everything I needed to do.] Well, with this new contraption, the nice star view apps are incredible .....just point and sha-zam! I’m loving it.
Also, the apps for bird, wildflower, rock/mineral and mushroom ID. Just amazing. I’m sold.
I must say, in the past; I would have to arm myself w/ countless reference books when going out to the night sky. In of itself, that was very labor-intense. And was anyone’s guess of *where-to-look*.
I find that, the darker the sky, the harder it often is to find common objects. Because in a dark sky you are overwhelmed with bright objects and it's very hard, at least for me, to locate familar things. In fact, when out camping in dark upstate New York, I had a diffiult time finding the Big Dipper.
Yes, the apps are great. There are some that allow you to point the phone in any direction and have the constelations, planets, and just about anything else you want, display on the screen. You can even point it out the ground and have the objects on the other side of the Earth displayed on the screen.
There are bird watcher apps that identify bird calls and tell you what type of bird made the sound.