Comet Watch app review: track the passing of Comet ISON on your iPhone

Introduction

The Comet Watch app is a way to track Comet ISON as it passes through our solar system. There are a lot of really great apps of this type already out there, so let's see how Comet Watch stands up to them.

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Wonderfully Rendered Layout And Animation

The first thing you will notice when you launch Comet Watch is that it's gorgeous, stunningly so. Regardless if you're swiping past the ghosting animations behind each constellation, or zooming in to take a closer look at a planet, everything is perfectly rendered. 

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Unfortunately that's all Comet Watch has to offer. It's all flash and no substance, much like an episode of C.S.I. All of the information that Comet Watch claims to provide is either too hard to find, doesn't exist, or it's nearly impossible to decipher. This is infuriating for any adult with the most rudimentary knowledge of astronomy, so I can't imagine what it's like to be a kid using Comet Watch for the first time.

The tutorial that Comet Watch leads you through when you first launch the app make no sense. That right there is always a great indication that a piece of software is useless.

 

There Is More Out There

Luckily there are a good number of fantastic astronomy apps out there that do the same things Comet Watch boasts, but unlike the Comet Watch app these other actually do it. I find it incredibly sad that something that looks this good can perform this badly. It's so bad it almost feels like a rib to the user. 

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Pros and Cons

Pros

• All of the animation is beautifully rendered

 

Cons

• The information is either too hard to find or impossible to understand
• Some of the functions the app promises aren't even there
• Even the tutorial makes no sense

 

Final Thoughts

If you even thought for a moment about downloading Comet Watch, don't do it to yourself. Instead, just go to the next free astronomy app and get that one, because there is no way it can perform worse than Comet Watch.