Five Useful iPhone Apps for Astronomers

Here’s a brief overview of the five iPhone apps that I, as an astronomer, find indispensible (in no particular order):

	Weather Pro (£2.39) Let’s face it, no weather forecast is 100% right, but this app gives you more info than most, allowing you to figure out in advance whether there’ll be clear skies.
	Magic Hour – formerly VelaClock (£2.39) So, it’s going to be a clear night. Now you need to know: when is sunset? when does astronomical twilight end? Magic hour is your app for that. Also displays moonrise and moonset times, this is the perfect app for figuring out exactly when your skies will be dark.
	Starwalk (£1.79) The very best of all iPhone astronomy apps, Starwalk has an exquisite interface, and is packed full of features. Great for beginners wanting to find their way around the sky, and for experts who want to dig a little deeper.
	Satellite Visibility (£1.79) Showing iridium flares, ISS & Hubble passes, and many other sats too. Impress your friends by knowing where and when (to the exact second) satellites are due to pass overhead.
	Reeder (£1.79) OK, so not immediately anything to do with astronomy, but with this RSS aggregator and subscriptions to some astronomy blog feeds (Bad Astronomy, Universe Today…), you’ll be able to keep abreast of all breaking astronomy news.

So only two of these are directly related to astronomy, but I’d be lost without any of these, and for a total cost of just over a tenner these apps are great value for money.

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