Spacebook
© 2013 Nicholas Hughes
It's not fancy, but this collection of 5,000+ astronomy photos is the kind of app that a young Carl Sagan would certainly have on his or her iPad or iPhone. Think of it as a customized browser for astronomy photos. After you start the app, you see a grid of photo thumbnails that are constantly updated, which is why this app won't work unless your iPad is connected to the Internet. But the good news is that you'll always get some fresh photos whenever you start up this app. That's because the content comes from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day website. Each picture comes with a title, a paragraph descriptor, and related images. You can easily tag or share the photos, to make your own slide show. You can also easily share a photo to Instagram, twitter or Pinterest or Facebook. A search feature makes it easy pull up photos by any keyword you type. Want to see Jupiter? You'll find hundreds of photos. How about a giant crater? You'll find one. The photos include nebulae, planets, moons, meteors, comets, satellites, distant and nearby stars, eclipses, and rovers. You can also browse the "Popular" feed and see the Spacebook community's favorite image. Features include the ability to zoom into a photo, and a shuffle mode to browse images at random. You can either swipe through the photos or shake your device to jump to a random photo. Again, this app isn't flashy, but it does deliver on the content.
$2.99, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch (Internet)
Teaches: astronomy, space, stars, solar system
CTR Rating: 86%