Distant Suns Lite review

Mark Mackay

We review Distant Suns Lite, an iPhone application that will help you learn the names of all those pin holes in the night sky

Published on Nov 11, 2009

It's easy to forget when you're looking at the stars at night time that each of them is a sun in its own right. While there are different varieties and stages that stars go through, most of them would have been much like the one that gives us a tan when the summer comes around at some point. Distant Suns Lite is an iPhone app that maps them out on your screen.

The mainstay of the application is a sort of planetarium that can be rotated around to see different portions of the night sky. Compass points are denoted at the bottom of the screen, showing you which directions you’d find the featured stellar objects.

Of course, as the earth rotates, the objects and their location relevant to you will depend on where in the world you are. To deal with these mitigating factors, Distant Suns Lite uses the time of day and your iPhone GPS to determine where you are. Turning the planetarium around on its axis and imagining the sheer vastness of what you're looking at is pretty cool.

Of course there are too many white dots in the sky to list on just one page. In an attempt to break things down a little, the app provides different options to list either moons or stars. Whichever one you’re looking at, the constellations of the zodiac and the planets of our solar system are listed to give you at least a vague idea of where you are looking in the depths of space.

There's also an option to view the planets individually in a 3D rendered image. Sadly these can’t be rotated and only give an idea of a planet’s colouring - and rings if applicable. If you're looking for a particular constellation then this can also be found in a separate menu system.

Although the list is extensive, it’s only the location of a constellation that is shown rather than the collection of stars that makes it up. An 'Other' menu option will show you the location will show you the location of diffuse nebulae and star clusters, most of which have unexciting names such as 'M13'.

A cooler feature is the 'What's up?' menu, which shows you the planets and stars that are above the horizon at a given time. If you've got a professional interest, or even just a hobbyist’s one, in the stars then the app is worth checking out. However, if you're looking for eye candy of the stellar variety or some light entertainment, then it's not for you.