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32 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | SEPTEMBER 2022 Stop the presses! Sometimes I find an app I want to share with you immediately. Funny word "immediate." If I finish this column in time, it will be almost a month until you can read it. Furthermore, I've already submitted a column for publication in the September Breeze. That piece will then have to wait till next summer for you to read. You see, I write a column as the mood strikes. Usually, to repeat myself, it's an inspiration for an opening line related to an app that starts the ball rolling. I always like to have at least two or three submissions ready to go in case I can't find an app to write about. And sometimes, as I've experienced recently, I'll come up with one idea after another. I've currently got columns for the rest of 2022 and just about the first half of next year. So, when I say, stop the presses, I mean I've come up with an app that I want to share with you now rather than wait almost a year. As soon as I finish this piece, I'm going to send it to Courtney Taylor, publisher of the Breeze, and ask her to substitute this one for the one I sent her a couple of days ago. That one can wait. I have never had much interest in the stars (the ones in the sky). It took a family trip through Idaho in the middle of the night for me to appreciate the night sky in all its splendor. This is a sight we won't see anywhere near a metropolitan area. But even so, my interest in things celestial has been pretty much limited to the moon (especially when seen in the day) and the sun. My fascination in the movement of the sun, especially at sunrise and sunset, was even the subject of an article I wrote awhile back for this magazine. But a few months back, when getting the mail at 5 am, I noticed a bright object low in the eastern sky. I learned that it was Venus and that started my fascination with the planets. I even mentioned this in a previous column and the fabulous timeanddate.com website. Not long ago the newspaper mentioned a somewhat unusual event – Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn were to be aligned and visible across the early morning sky. I awoke at 4 am to see this terrific event and was very pleased with myself for doing so. Since I'm an early riser by nature, I now get the daily pleasure of seeing one or more planets in the pre-dawn sky (clouds permitting). You would think that someone like me who writes about smartphone apps would have searched for an appropriate app. In fact, I did mention star apps that identified heavenly objects. But it was only a day ago that I found PlanetFinder. To be fair, this app doesn't compare to the detail of the website which shows the track of the planets throughout the year on a sky scene for your location. Nevertheless, PlanetFinder shows the location of the planets at the time of day you're looking at the screen. The sun and moon are included in the list. Each object is noted with whether or not it is currently visible and its location in the sky. It gives the elevation above the horizon in degrees and it gives the azimuth. If you look up the definition of azimuth, you may find a complicated explanation. I think of azimuth as a compass heading. 0 degrees in north, 180 is south. But you don't need to relive your Girl/Boy Scout years to find the planets. Just fire up PlanetFinder, select Planets at the bottom of the screen, select a planet, and point your phone to the sky. As you scan the sky, you will see whatever planets are there, named and sized appropriately. As it happens, planets are available on the app for free. Stars, Constellations, and Satellites are available in detail for 99 cents for each of the three. I love this app and hope you will too. If you use an app you'd like to share with others, let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. ~ Steve Benoff THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! This App Is Heavenly

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