Emerald Observatory Review

Sometimes I just want to stare at my iPad and admire how cool it looks. I’ve used various clock and nightstand apps to keep on at night. While apps like that have little to almost no practical use (no one needs a $500+ alarm clock), I immediately get sucked in if they simply look cool. Emerald Observatory looks incredible and has more use and function than just a clock app.

Emerald Observatory’s main function is to present astronomical information to the user in a great-looking interface. Sure, it works as a clock, but it provides significantly more information than that. It provides some great information about the moon. A picture is shown on what the moon looks like from the current location at the time the user’s looking at it. Also, the moon changes size relative to the distant it currently is from Earth.

There are six rings around the inside of the clock that display the times in which each of the six “classical planets” are above the horizon. As well as 12 different colored arrows places around the clock to indicate various special times like solar noon, civil twilight, nautical twilight, astronomical twilight, and more. The 12 constellations are marked by their astrological symbols (around the inside of the clock) in relation to the sun and other planets (in the center of the clock). There are a huge list of other features Emerald Observatory boasts; check them out its website.

Being completely honest, I didn’t most of the information in Emerald Observatory before looking up on it. The whole experience of reviewing this app has been a sort of Astronomy 101 experience for me. For $0.99, this is a must-have app for any iPad owner. In one of those situations where someone asks why I bought the iPad, this is going to be one of my “check this out” apps.