Even though it may be central to survival, it’s not very often that we give the Sun a second thought. Now, from the safety of your iPhone or iPod Touch you can take a closer look at that big, familiar ball in the sky. Developed by Todd Hopkinson of The Todkin Company, Starquake is a series of ten videos each depicting different astrological phenomenon that have occurred on the surface of the Sun.

Starquake is a quite an out of the ordinary visual experience. The ten videos that span this astronomical application are a diverse range of solar flares, sun storms, and even some close-up clips of a sun-spot. Since the images were created using different methods of recording, the videos have a varied aesthetic so that the Sun does not only appear as yellow or orange, in some it is green and even blue. Along these same lines there are a series of three videos called Sol in 3D that are, as you would guess, best viewed using 3D glasses.

One unexpected feature in Starquake is that along with the extensive full-motion videos, you also get to hear the actual sound of the Sun. As it is explained in the clip called Sun Twist, the sounds are authentic, “produced by processing data obtained from wave oscillations on the Sun,” however they were not taken at the same time as the video portions. Not all of the videos have the sound of the sun as the audio portion but the ones that do will say so on the opening screen.

With each of these videos there is a small “i” at the bottom of the screen that you can tap to get more information. Depending on the clip these additional information screens can be more informative than others. Some give details about the events you see in the videos but then some simply credit the agency that captured the footage.

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category: Education, Worthwhile Apps