Source:LiveScience On Dec. 20, 2011, astronomers announced the discovery an alien solar system 950 light-years from Earth that is chock full of planets, including the first two extrasolar worlds ever confirmed to be the size of our own Earth or smaller. Finding Earth-size planets has been a major goal for NASA's Kepler space observatory, which spotted the small alien worlds and their larger cousins around a star known as Kepler 20. The two Earth-size planets (one is actually smaller than Earth) are known as Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f. See how the planets compare to Earth and the other planets in their alien star system in the infographic above. 

Source: SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

It has been a while since I posted an update on the Comet app download stats. So, here are the latest stats on the Comet iPhone app. So far a total of 548 downloads and still a 5 star rating.

USA: 285
France: 37
UK: 35
Australia: 28
Canada: 27
Italy: 20
Spain: 15
Germany: 13
Belgium: 8
Mexico: 8
Others: 72

The current version is 1.1.2 which added a couple of improvements to the filtering of the comet list. It also added a "Night Mode" for visual observing to help preserve night vision. I have so many ideas for this app and I hope to implement them soon. I just need to find time to work on it between my day job and family time.

Here are the latest stats on the Comet iPhone app. So far a total of 323 downloads and a 5 star rating.

USA: 166
UK: 25
Australia: 22
France: 17
Canada: 15
Italy: 15
Spain: 9
Germany: 6
Belgium: 5
Ireland: 3
Others: 40

Version 1.1.1 has just been uploaded to Apple. It will resolve the issue of the RA lower limit being greater than the RA Upper Limit. Hopefully that will be approved soon and be ready for update.

Here are the latest stats on the Comet iPhone app. So far a total of 231 downloads.

USA: 108
UK: 22
Australia: 18
France: 14
Canada: 12
Italy: 10
Germany: 5
Belgium: 5
Spain: 5
Ireland: 3
Others: 29

 

Another week down and here is the updated download stats for the Comet iPhone app.

USA: 82
Australia: 16
UK: 15
France: 11
Canada: 11
Italy: 7
Germany: 4
China: 3
Spain: 3
Belgium: 3
Others: 20

For a grand total of 175 downloads so far.

Don't forget, version 1.1.0 has already been submitted for Apple's approval. Hopefully we will see that in the app store shortly.

Keith 

Not the best visibility for M101 tonight since it is setting in the West and I have limited visibility to the West. None the less, I snapped a few quick images of the Pinwheel Galaxy. I didn't want to be the only astronomer that didn't. LOL

Before i shut down for the night, I also took a quick shot of the Veil Nebula. This is a single 5 minute exposure.

Thursday I uploaded an update to the Comet iPhone app to Apple. We are simply waiting on them to approve and release it to the iTunes store at this point. In this new version are features that were requested (and honestly needed). 

The new features include:

• The ability to sort the comets by Name, RA, Declination, and more.
• Sort in Ascending or Descending order
• Filter the list based on upper and lower RA limits, upper and lower Declination limits, and a magnitude limit.
• The ability to manually enter GPS coordinates rather than use the coordinates the iPhone determines.
• All of these settings are saved between sessions. Set your limits, sorting, and GPS coordinates once and they will remain each time you enter the app.

 

Hopefully Apple will approve this update shortly and everyone can enjoy these new features. 

Again, if you think the app is in need of other features or have any other suggestions at all, please drop me an email. I will do my best to make sure that valuable additions to the program make it in there.

If you have downloaded the app and find it useful, please take a moment in iTunes to rate the app.

Keith

Decided to take a panoramic image of the sky from inside the observatory with the roof open to show the view that I have from this location. As you can see, I have a pretty unobstructed view of the sky. To the North, East, and South I can get just about anything. The roof of the observatory opens to the West so I am unable to view anything to the West.

Well, the comet app has been available on the app store since August 11, 2011. In the first 11 days of sale it has seen 123 downloads thus far. I am really excited about the number of people that have downloaded the app so far. I never thought it would see this many downloads this quickly. 

I am working on version 1.1 update that will include a Sort / Filter option so that you can sort and filter the comet list. You will be able to sort by almost any orbital element or even the current RA or Declination. As for filtering, you will be able to filter the list based on a upper and lower RA limit as well as a magnitude limit. I am also planning on adding the ability to manually override the GPS location coordinates so that you can manually select a longitude and latitude instead of always using the GPS coordinates that the phone detects. I hope to have that new update done within a couple of weeks. 

Here is the breakdown of the app downloads thus far:

USA: 60
Australia: 12
UK: 11
France: 8
Canada : 5
Italy: 4
India: 3
China: 3
Germany: 3
Taiwan: 2
Others: 12

Thanks to all that have downloaded the app. I hope if you have that you find it useful. I have plans to release another similar app that will encompass all minor planets rather than just comets.

Keith