There are now seven serious star-charting apps in the iTunes Store (as of 30 January 2009). Each is good in its own ways, and each has its weaknesses.

I still use the DOS version of Distant sun on my Macbook :)

I had been looking for a good astronomy program, the ones out so far just didn't quite appeal to me. This one does and works as advertised. Very nice for a first release. Great to see all the Messier objects. I Like the Whats Up view for the planets. Hopefully more good things to come.

Driving home this evening, I was fairly sure what I saw low in the sky was Venus - but what was that other planet nearby?

Features, user experience, performance, utility and design - everything about this app is what you'd want in a sky gazing companion.

An excellent application that can only get better. I love it. Best astronomy program for iPhone.

As an educator who is new to the iPhone scene, I had concerns about navigating my way around an app for my new iPod Touch. Distant Suns has a tutorial that is actually useful (the Quickstart page in the Help menu) which told me everything I needed to be successful. Seconds after tapping my way through the icons on the toolbar, I was in heaven, both literally and figuratively.

wish i'd found this one before i purchased two others that cost twice as much and were much less than half as usable. bravo!

Since the late 1980's Distant Suns has been an incredible contribution, and thanks to this new application, it now can be carried into the field in one's pocket. Clearly, the full version has much more versitility than this one, but the iPhone application is a great start.

This is a fantastic, well thought out app! Very useful and very useable. I ope future versions will allow you to adjust the time displayed so that you can predict future events

I got this on my Amiga way back when it was released. I had all of the extra star disks and picture disks. This app is way cool for an old retired dude and works great. I knew it would because it was great on the Amiga. Only thing I miss at the moment is being able to put my location any where in the solar sys or universe and run time at super fast rates to see how planets move and how constellations will change in time. My Amiga's have been in storage since Katrina flooded my first floor, this makes me want to dig them out and see if they will still boot up. Thanks Mike for reviving this great program and many good memories using it.

I have purchased every sky chart app for the IPhone and used them for months. When I saw that Distant Suns was available I purchased it and have used it for a few days. Wow! It is easy to use and the interface gets you to the task of either identifying what you see, or helping you find something of interest quickly and efficiently. The graphics are great but not overburdening.

Price might be a bit too high to gain wider usage audience... and needs a Deep Field function or Zoom: in and out as if you were looking in telescope...

I use this app every night. Not just when I'm looking for a pizza, cheap gas or movie.

Why does it always crash 5 minutes into using it? An update to fix this problem would be helpful.

It took me about an hour to get it all figured out and set up the way I like, and it took that long probably b/c I'm a newby to astronomy. For the last month or so it has been the only app (besides the phone) that I use EVERY DAY- or, um, night. I can't say enough good things about this app. I love it so much I would marry it, if I was into that sort of thing. Which I'm not.

The comet Lulin alert and tracking is timely and and makes a great app even more useful (and fun). The more I use this guide the more I appreciate the thoughtful UI design.

I love this app. It's really well made.

Excellent app but it crashes really easily. I always restart my phone but after ten minutes it's crashes about every 30 seconds

This application will tell you what you are looking at and also help you find what you are looking for. The interface is top notch. I use the "what's up" feature all the time. I would like it to have the phases of the planets as well as the transits of Venus, mercury, the galileian moons and triton. But I am very happy as it is!

I was VERY impressed that the author cared so much to include updates on the comet and have it show up on the screen. I have Star Map and there was no updates whatsoever. This shows that the author will go the extra mile for their customers. It might not be the best interface of the astronomy programs, but it is a very good one and as a amateur astronomer it has high marks in its precision and helpfulness!! Way to Go :)

Amazing! Its so cool how you can see so much of the universe in the palm of your hand! Its hours of fun that this app brings. I do have one request though, if you can put more information for the moons of planets. I'd really like to learn about Europea (if thats how you spell it), and other moons. A good idea would be to put in a text search function, so you could type in the name of somthing you want to see.

Distant Suns is a great app - wonderful depiction of the night sky and lots of information. The reason for not giving it 5 stars, for some reason it does not display the correct rise and set times for the Sun, Moon, and Planets. I must say, I am quite impressed that Distant Suns is current enough to show Comet Lulin - now if the clouds would clear so I can see the comet.

I love the constentation stories. And the interface is friendly.

This app is a diamond in the rough. Only after I took a few minutes to look over the prefs and change some of the settings, did operating Distant Suns make more sense -- and I began to see its full potential. I currently understand only the basics of astronomy. I bought this app hoping it would help me better answer my son's questions about the solar system and beyond. Not only did it make this Dad sound more intelligent, it also has reignited my own curiosity about astronomy. If you want a super-slick interface, then you should probably look elsewhere. Distant Suns is all about the data. If you are a professional astronomer, I can only imagine your excitement at having such a powerful tool in your pocket at all times. If you are an avid star watcher, what a great way to add to your growing body of knowledge. If you are a novice like me, I hope you take a few minutes to study the interface so that Distant Suns may get you outdoors at night -- armed with a tool to help you better understand what's up there. You can't go wrong with this feature rich app. My son and I now look forward to every sunset -- and to the quality time we spend afterwards studying the sky together.

This application is the best "all around" astronomy software available for the iPhone. It may not be a graphics powerhouse, but it sure gets the job done. I consider this my "swiss army knife" of iPhone astronomy applications. It has all of the tools I need for a quick view of what's up, to a serious night of sky watching. It's quick, easy to use and well supported! The author has been writing different versions of this application on multiple platforms for years and his support has been second to none.

Both of this developers apps "Grand Tour" and " Distant Sun's" are amazing. I loved the free version of Distant Suns so much I upgraded to the full app. Both apps are a perfect way to understand our local Solar System as well as are place in the Universe. Highly recomend getting both.

the app is outstanding and i love being able to set lat/long to the local i am at when i am looking. great detail in the information, and photos are cool. love the "what's up" feature to see just where the planets are at anytime of day..take a look and you will like it alot too!!!

I love the constentation stories. And the interface is friendly. Can u make it possible to watch over 90degee? Coz sometimes I lay down on grass and can see the sky with 60-120 vertical degree.

I love this app, and I can honestly say I use it every night. It's evident a lot of thought and hard work went into this. Thanks to the developer!

While apps such as Star Walk may be superficially prettier, they have nothing on the data contained in Distant Suns. Besides the obligatory RA/Dec, distance, rise and set times, etc, DS also has brightness/luminosity and spectral class data, as well as binary and variable parameters for stars that have them. Messier catalog objects include short descriptions, a high resolution picture, and angular size. Plenty of display options, including turning off constellation "stick figures" and turning on their borders. The only two additional features I'd love to see are the ability to choose times other than the current time, and a search feature for stars, so I might, say, find all currently visible Cepheid variables with a certain magnitude cutoff. By far my favorite astronomy app for the iPhone.

Used it right out of the chute to confirm that we were looking at Orion. Nice to have all the stars labeled and the correct intensities to help identify things. Well worth $6

Being able to locate stars and getting a background on the mythology is what sold me. For those who complain about graphics put down your phone and look at the sky.

Literally the universe at your finger tips. Great after new update; does pretty much everything you could ask for. Again, I love this app.

I love the interface and the graphics. This app is very well done. This is a great way to learn Astronomy at your own pace. Great job by the developers.

I've had this app for over a month, one of the first apps I've bought. I love every bit of it! THIS APP DOES NOT CRASH FOR ME!! EVER!!!! the Iphone/touch is a computer, when u download apps u need to restart ur phone/touch before using them! it's like installing a program on a regular computer. do not reboot it!!!!!! holding both buttons is for emergency cases of the phone locking up, rebooting is like pulling the plug on ur computer when it's on and running, then plugging it back in. very stupid and ur device is probly already dammaged from that. regularly restart it. u ppl r so stupid. blameing this app for ur lack of brains! Back-up ur pod/phone and restore everything, and load it back, that mite help. idk, sorry, ur loss! Back to this great app!! I've always looked at the stars, notice some come out early, some brighter than others, some flicker alot, some are closer to the horizon. Well because of this app I no longer wonder what is above me, I find out exactly what it is! very simple and easy to use, and packed with enough information to teach a college coarse on the universe! I love when it tells me that there is a meteor shower and ect, there is one tonight, I missed the last one! I've been trying to witness every visible planet when it is out. I am a super novice star gazer that just always looked at the sky all my life and wondered. because of this app I'm going to buy a telescope, I've been going up north more! the stars in northern Michigan are beautiful! so is michigan!;) This app was almost overwelming at first, I used it to see planets and the dippers and ur elementary school type stuff, now I'm a pro and can find almost anything in the sky and tell u way too much information about it! THIS MIKE GUY IS GREAT! I ENJOY THE APPS THIS GUY MAKES! U CAN TELL ALOT OF TIME AND EFFORT WENT INTO THIS APP!! THANK YOU! Also ppl complain about graphics on this app, I think they r fine! it will show u an actual picture of what u r looking at if it's a galaxy moons planets ect, if u want. There are several free apps that will just show u just pictures, if all u want to do is look at pretty pictures... if they put as much into this app as everyone wanted it'd be a 300 dollar app that takes all the space on ur iPhone/touch and would run slower than horse crap! duh!!! u ppl r stupid!! THIS APP IS FOR PPL TO GO OUTSIDE AND USE THERE EYES OR A TELESCOPE, NOT TO SIT ON THE COUCH AND WITNESS SPACE IN HIGH DEFINITION ON THE IPHONE. THAT'S JUST STUPID!! u ppl r lazy and stupid, u just want want want! u should judge yourself the way u judge these apps, cuz there are a hell of alot of improvements YOU can make, learn how to not be retarded self centered and spoiled... or u just need to humble yourself, go outside, turn on this app, and look at the exact same things that every human being from the dawn(or maybe dusk) of man(or woman:/) has been looking up at!!!! except you know what those crazy things in the sky are, because this app will tell you!! maybe that's what u need:) thank u!!!:):):);)

I love this program but I was hoping the next update would have included using the new iPhones compass feature. This app would be awesome if it would rotate the sky based on which direction I was facing rather then me guessing which way I'm facing. It would aslo give me a chance to show off that new compass 

This is an extremely well written app. There is such a wealth of information and the way it works is simple and amazing!! Excellent job!

I'm new to the iPhone but have taught astronomy all my life. When I first bought my 3Gs I immediately downloaded every astronomy program out there, running the gamut from the free apps to the most expensive. Now that I've had about six weeks to play with them all, I'm ready to say that Distant Suns is the best one for the novice or intermediate sky gazer. Its sky images are the most realistic of them all and are almost strikingly pretty. The many features and modes are a great help in finding and identifying what you are looking at, yet all names, coordinates, outlines etc. can be quickly removed for an unobstructed view of the sky again. Whether you just want to learn a few of the constellations, or you are a dedicated amateur with a small or medium size telescope, this is the best app out there for most people. It is amazingly bug-free on my 3Gs and the compass function works smoothly and accurately. Not cheap, and I would change a couple of very minor things, but I believe most will love this app.

I have most of the astronomy apps. Of them all, Distant Suns best balances useability, beauty, and content. A good example of how the truly useful is always elegant but rarely flashy. I especially like the crosshairs for identifying stars. Dragging a star into the crosshairs is easy, and that's the one the info panel will then describe. Most other apps require double tapping the star instead, but it's hard to hit the correct tiny star with a big fingertip. I love all the descriptive content. No use just naming the stars. I want to read about what I'm seeing, and appreciate the zillion photographs showing objects I'll never be able to see in any telescope I could lift or afford.