Ever stopped what you were doing just to gaze at the night sky? The stars are fascinating, aren't they? However, you can't make out much without someone (or something) explaining to you what constellations are visible at a time, which star is which, how far it is from the Earth and so on.

Starmap for iPhone promises to be your “ideal stargazing companion.” For $11.99, this app lets you “easily find constellations, planets or shooting stars zones. A complete hand planetarium for beginners and advanced astronomers,” the iTunes App Store reveals.

Filed under education, Starmap includes 120,000 visible stars, 200 main stars with names, kind and spectrum, 150 galaxies and nebulae, automatic viewpoint using the built-in accelerometer, Multi-Touch controls, coordinates and more. The full list of available features, complete with newly added enhancements, is available below:

Original features

- 120,000 visible stars.
- 200 Main stars with names, kind, spectrum.
- 150 Galaxies and nebulae.
- Automatic viewpoint using the built-in accelerometer.
- Pinch and zoom as if you were looking in a telescope.
- Adjust sky and stars brightness matching your observation conditions.
- Full coordinates, ecliptic, celestial equator.
- Complete ephemeris, including moon phase and planets satellites.

New features include Night Vision mode, Shooting star zones, GPS support and custom user localizations.

Currently at version 1.2.1, Starmap now uses accelerated graphics, developer Fredd reveals, with a new frame rate coming close to 20 frames per second. The names of constellations and planets are localized in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Japanese, according to the iTunes App Store description.

A star chart or star map is a map of the night sky. A star chart differs from an astronomical catalog, which is a listing or tabulation of astronomical objects for a particular purpose. Astronomers divide star charts into grids to use them to identify and locate astronomical objects. Those are stars, planets, constellations, galaxies etc.

Starmap for iPhone and iPod touch requires firmware 2.0 (or newer). It can be downloaded via Apple's App Store here.