The Sun Live – a new app for Windows 8.1 and Phone 8

Here’s a message today from Jon Saalbach, the creator of the site and app The Sun Live:

TheSunLive

The Sun Live is released today as an app for Windows 8.1, for Windows Phone 8 and available for other units as a web app.

As an amateur astronomer myself, I started developing The Sun Live to have an easy and convenient way to see what the Sun is up to today, and decide if there are sunspots or prominences I want to study in the telescope.

Amateur astronomers, armchair astronomers and other people alike will enjoy exploring the Sun’s surface layers in detail and follow sunspots, prominences and flares as they appear on the latest images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. For more solar action, check out the Picks of the Week, showing the most spectacular past events, chosen by NASA’s SDO team and illustrated with images, descriptions and video clips (not all the video clips are accessible on Windows Phone).

The fascinating facts will surprise and entertain you and provide you with interesting subjects for conversation. Even most amateur astronomers might learn something new here. If you want to go more in depth, the Learn More section will take you through the basics of the Sun’s structure, life cycle and its influences on life here on Earth.

For those ready to take on the Sun themselves, The Sun Live will show what they need to get started observing sunspots, planet transits, prominences and solar eclipses yourself. Dust off your old binoculars or zoom enabled camera and learn how to get a cheap and safe solar filter.

From the Windows/Windows Phone apps you can pin the current views or the latest pick of the week on your live tile and, on Windows Phone 8, as your lock screen background. Secondary tiles let you go directly to the feature you want to see on your Windows phone.

The Sun Live 2.0 for Windows Phone 8:

Download Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=2ef562fe-db7b-4a3b-ba9a-02c5dfaf73ff

QR-code, screen shots and graphics available here: http://www.saalbach.dk/downloads/TheSunLive2WP.zip

The Sun Live for Windows 8.1:

Download Link:  http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/app/the-sun-live/c68916d4-c77c-4dbf-84f2-27c355f7b2a4

QR-code, screen shots and graphics available here: http://www.saalbach.dk/downloads/TheSunLiveWin.zip