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August 19th, 2010

Month of Astronomy Awards

We are glad to announce that our Month of Astronomy has come to its final and most pleasurable stage!

First of all, we would like to thank everyone for participation. If it weren’t for you guys, there would be no Star Walk! So thank you and we hope to enjoy more contests and fun with you in the future! Special thanks to TheiPadFan, MomsWithApps, CafeMom, PragmaticMom, MomSpark and Science@home for their support and help spreading the word.

Secondly, we’d like to encourage you to share any ideas you have about the development of our apps and activities around them. We always try to think of ways to popularize astronomy and are open to all kinds of ideas! Your opinion is greatly valued and always appreciated.

And last but not least – the Winners!

$20, $15, $10 iTunes cards go to Erik Jensen, Farès Fayad and Chris Anderson who demonstrated great knowledge of the Solar System. We had so much fun with this contest on Facebook, we decided to do it again! Join us anytime!

We’d like to give the main prize of the Month of Astronomy to the very creative and talented Norbert Neteschal who wrote a wonderful little poem about stargazing and shooting the Moon! To encourage spontaneous creativity in the world and to thank him for this original contribution we’d like to give Norbert iPod Touch.

We’d like to mention other participants who posted nice posts about stargazing on their blogs and social sites. They are Avivah Yamani, Peter Lake, Raymond Gilchrist and Rolène Karam Fayad. Please get in contact with us to get your T-Shirts.

To sum it up, we hope that our users enjoyed this event very much and we look forward to any feedback and suggestions from you to make such events more interesting.

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August 16th, 2010

AstroQuiz


Hi, guys!
Thank you everyone for your participation in our Month of Astronomy! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. We decided to repeat this success and organized another fun contest for you! Back by popular demand,  NEW AstroQuiz!

The rules:

This time the AstroQuiz will have 10 questions, that will be posted daily. To be eligible post your answer to a question in the comment section either on Facebook, or on Twitter (in this case please include #astroquiz hashtag). The person to post the correct answer the 1st will get 2 points, while all the rest who give the correct answer will get 1 point.

The prizes:

1st place - $10 iTunes card and a T-shirt
2nd and 3rd place- Prom ocode for one of Vito Technoloy Apps you choose and a T-shirt.
The rest of contestants will get T-shirts.

Enjoy and Good Luck!

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July 26th, 2010

“Mercury and Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower”

This week is remarkable with not only Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower, but also with Various positions of Moon and planets that one may find curious.
26 July- Today You should pay your attention to Cygnus (the Swan Constellation). It will be  is high in the East after sunset. Its brightest star, Deneb, marks the tail o the Swan (not in this app however :) – redrawing it right now).
27 July –  At about 10 p.m. you can catch a remarkable view of Mercury being very close to Regulus. At some point it might even think this is one big star.
July 28 – The Moon is at the farthest point from Earth today. The gibbous Moon rises in the evening. So, use your chance to have a good look at it!
July 29 – The planets Mars and Saturn are really close tonight. They are to the upper left of Venus, the “evening star.”Saturn stands just above Mars, which is a little less bright.
July 30 – The planets Saturn, Mars, and Venus team up low in the west in early evening. Venus is the “evening star.” Saturn and Mars look like fainter stars to the upper left of Venus, with Saturn a little above Mars.
July 31 – Enjoy the view of Jupiter in the morning sky at about 2 a.m. And in the evening sky promises Mars and Saturn in quite close position.

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July 22nd, 2010

StarGazing Date

Yeah, it might sound quite beaten, but once you organize a well thought through Stargazing Date, you might quite impress your lady. Lets get all the necessary  things organized.
So, as we’ve discussed that in previous posts I’ll just mention basic stuff in brief:
1.You need to check on the weather,
2.Choose a day that promises an Astronomy event (Perseids on the 11th-12th of August is a huge thing).
3. Select a proper environment with low-light pollution and an open space, so nothing would prevent you from seeing the whole picture.
4. Bring a blanket, or better 2, a torch, a bottle of wine, some fruits or snacks, mosquito repellent, binoculars or telescope (or better an iPad).
5. Turn on Night Mode on Star Walk, so your eyes would adapt to darkness.
6. Tell a nice romantic story of the stars you can see.
The Story I suggest features several constellations visible in the Northern sky  in the late evening as the characters, so you can tell a nice romantic story featuring at least 4 constellations to show. By the way,  if you come to forget the story you can just open Wiki info on your iPad or any iPhone to get some prompts.
So, the story is:
“Cassiopeia was the queen and consort of King Cepheus in Ethiopia. Their daughter Andromeda was very beautiful. Cassiopeia herself was a great beauty and was vain of it; she proclaimed her beauty was greater than that of the Nereids’, the daughters of the sea god Poseidon. To punish Cassiopeia, he sentenced Andromeda to be tied to a rock with a sea monster awaiting her.
Perseus, returning from having slaughtered the gorgon Medusa, encountered the body of Andromeda lashed to the rock. He spoke to Cassiopeia and her husband and struck a deal with them: he would be allowed to marry Andromeda if he could kill the great sea monster before it killed their virgin daughter (who had been betrothed to her uncle Phineus). Perseus defeated the monster, took Andromeda and returned to Ethiopia. Cassiopeia and Cepheus fulfilled their end of the bargain and began to plan the wedding for Andromeda. After the nuptials began, Phineus entered the proceedings and demanded his right to marry Andromeda.
A battle ensued in which Cepheus and Cassiopeia sided with Phineus. Outnumbered, Perseus considered that he had no choice but to slay his challengers by using the head of the recently slaughtered Medusa. Following their death both Cepheus and Cassiopeia were placed among the stars by Poseidon. Cassiopeia was put upside down for half the year because of her vanity, with her husband beside her.”
This story has several variants, so choose the one you prefer! Hope you will enjoy this date and it will bring you closer to the person you realy like.

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July 19th, 2010

July 18th – July 24th “Moon near Antares”

This week promises a wide verity of nice vets of the Moon and a good chance to spot meteor showers that gain its brightness gradually.

19 July – You can spot a nice view on 3 bright stars in the Eastern sky, they make a triangle- Vega, Deneb, Altair.The best view will be in the evening sky. But when it will get darker you might find the view of a- Capricornids meteor shower to the lower left of the triangular.

20 July - You can spot a nice view of the Moon near Antares this night. At about 21:30 p.m. (check the time according to your location) you may catch a nice view of them paired in the southern sky at about 21:40 p.m.

21 July - Antares will show its maximum today! It will shine brightly from the evening till the early morning, and you will be able to spot the Scorpion constellation today.

22 July – Past the midnight you will have a chance to see several meteor showers- South Aquariids, Piscis Austrinids and a-Capricornids in the Southern sky. Still remember this should be low light polluted area to get the view and make a wish!

23 July – Today try to spot star named Arcturus in the Bootes constellation at about midnight in the western sky.

24 July- Moon will have 90 per cent visibility, so you could enjoy its view. Try locate all 4 meteor showers that are to be visible today- South Aquariids, Piscis Austrinids and a-Capricornids in the South and Perseidsin the North-East.

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