Pocket Planets – a brilliantly geeky app to explore the galaxy in cool 3D
by Paul Wilks
Jul 23, 2012 7:58 AM –
Install
Pocket Planets is a brilliantly geeky app that allows you to explore the galaxy from your Android device. Featuring rich visuals and jam-packed with lots of facts and information, it’s the perfect application for the amateur astronomer, regardless of age.
Price: Free, ~$2.99 for full version
Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Beautiful graphics, stunningly textured planets and smooth animations!
- Bounty of interesting data!
- Simple to use!
- Really absorbing!
Cons
- Controls occasionally left me literally ‘lost in space’.
Features:
Pocket Planets is a very cool educational app that guides you around over 200 planets, moons and stars in our solar system. Objects can be explored and the app features several facts about each of them. You can zoom in and around objects, watch them orbit and control a timeline which shows their movement.
The first thing you’ll notice is the beautifully smooth graphics engine that runs the app. It’s very buttery and enjoyable to use. There is a rather extended, and very useful, tutorial when you first start the app and this continues to be available in the help section.
Perhaps the most important button is the menu button as this permits a very simple way to navigate through the stars. You can automatically select a location to view (such as a planet or moon), select which kind of camera to view (either one linked to an object or one free in space), access to the detailed encyclopedia and map shortcuts (view inner planets, asteroid belt, outer planets, Kuiper Belt or Sedna). You can also change preferences in the menu; info, orbit, labels, visibility, lighting and effects). Finally, there’s a help and credits section.
Above all other aspects of the app, I found it to be incredibly absorbing. If it was a game, I’d suggest that it was highly addictive- I found myself really engrossed in exploring all corners of the solar system and reading up on various moons, stars and planets. The info about each object is great, detailing things like when it was first identified and what it is made up of. The app really gives you a nice grasp of the known galaxy. OK, there’s not much here for seasoned astronomers besides a 3D model of the solar system, but for the keen amateur, there’s wealth of cool data to explore and learn.
Watch on Mobile
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Pocket Planets – Splash page
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Pocket Planets – View of sun
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Pocket Planets – View of Earth
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Pocket Planets – Explore the rings of Saturn
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Pocket Planets – Zoomed out view of Sun and orbitting planets
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Pocket Planets – Facts and more
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Pocket Planets – Encyclopedia
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Pocket Planets – Easy-search A-Z of objects
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Pocket Planets – Preferences
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Pocket Planets – Intro and help
Usefulness:
If you have an interest in science (serious or passing), Pocket Planets is an enjoyable and rich resource of cool information relating to our universe. It’s enthralling to explore the stars with this beautiful app, which feels like a cross between Google Earth and Google Sky Map.
Ease of Use:
The controls are a little tricky but not counter-intuitive. It’s just that you have so many ways to move about that it takes a little practice to understand it fully. This shouldn’t put users off however, it’s still a fun app to use regardless.
Frequently Used:
There are some 200 or more objects (planets/stars/moons/asteroids) to explore and learn about and, from the Sun to the smallest outlying moon, there’s interesting facts and data. I don’t think it’s an app you’d use daily, but more like something you’d play with from time to time.
Interface:
The interface is simply stunning. Really smooth and vivid, you can pinch, zoom, swipe and tap your way around the galaxy with ease.