Welcome to Distant Suns
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Welcome to the Distant Suns website. If you are new to Distant Suns, check out the About section. If you’re looking for high quality iPhone software for the whole family, click any of the icons on the right. If you have any bug reports (er “unanticipated features”), first check the FAQ as they may already be there with a solution. Otherwise check the bugs column below.
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For anyone wanting to get the eBook edition of OpenGL for iOS, note that the publisher inadvertently sent out a black&white copy, and not the color version as intended. Yes, it is really lame to have a book on GRAPHICS (!) in black&white. Note however that the version ODT (On Dead Tree) has to be in b&w just because ODT color books are way too expensive.
I’ll update this when the color version is ready, which should be any day.
Now it can be told…
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The reason why Distant Suns has not received too many upgrades over the past 6 months has to do with Apress contacting me to write two books. One on programming OpenGL on iOS and the other on Android. Over 6 months and countless Red Bulls later, the iOS version has just be released.
Pro OpenGL ES for iOS is now available from Amazon.
Now to complete the Android one, along with a nice Distant Suns enhancement at the same time.
More astrophotography
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Pretty good seeing tonight, as opposed to last night which was awful. This is my favorite phase of the moon, as it highlights Copernicus, Clavius and Tycho. This was shot completely handheld so I could use my 35 mm eyepiece that gave me a fighting chance to capture the entire disk in one shot. The Magnilux didn’t come with the larger bracket needed for the 1.25″ eyepiece barrel. I should get that shortly so I don’t have to shoot 40 images just to get one or two good ‘uns.
Gibbous moon
Astrophotography with an iPhone 4
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I recently received a Magnilux adapter that mounts an iPhone on a telescope and have had fun seeing on what kinds of photos it can manage. So last night I took it out and mounted it up on my Celestron 6SE. And below are the results, at least when talking about the moon. Not bad. eh?
1st Q moon with iPhone 4 and Celestron telescope
Tbe photo above was with a 25mm eyepiece, while the second was using a 15mm. I wanted to use my 35mm which would make it easier to capture the entire disc, but as it turns out I needed to order the larger bracket separately.
Southern limb of a 1st quarter moon
Sale Prices Extended Through Cyber Monday
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We’ve extended our sale through Midnight, Tuesday, November 29.
Distant Suns 2 for $.99, and Distant Suns 3 for only $3.99.
Happy Holidays!
Distant Suns 2 and 3 Black Friday Sale
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Distant Suns 2 on sale through Saturday, Nov.26 for $.99, and Distant Suns 3 for only $3.99.
Distant Suns in Mongolia (huh?)
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On Saturday, we here at the Distant Suns World Headquarters, participated in a weekend conference on startups and entrepreneurs held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Yes, that Mongolia. In a two-way video link thanks to Skype, I covered what it takes to be an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, and tips on getting successful apps out into the Market.
The group was surprisingly savvy, asking me about the Silicon Prairie, how to handle the financial hit to going full-time on app development and platforms other than iOS to develop for.
Several Mongolian app authors were in the audience and I hope to hear from them soon and perhaps to be a mentor to the group.
Silicon Valley and Mongolia connected by Skype
Update on Weather Planet and Grand Tour
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Still both are off of the appstore, until I can get access to the live cloud data. The terms of the service that supplied the full-earth cloud images has changed, as well as the servers, so I need to get those cleared up. And that will come only when I am done with a book I am writing on OpenGL ES. “Sleep deprived” is my middle name.
Visit to Steve Job’s house
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Like many in the valley last week, I was saddened to hear of the loss of Steve Jobs. Someone who proved that good-enough wasn’t always good-enough. Considering that his home is only a few minutes away I had to go and see the tributes left for him. No doubt you may have seen similar shots on the news, but FWIW here are some of mine.
There were three kinds of memorials people left: Apples (the fruit) with a note penned on the side (some apples with a bite out of them), cards and flowers. Sometimes all three. Everyone remarked at the apple trees in the yard, laden heavy with their latest crop.
There was not a huge crowd, only about 30 people at any one time. Some security types stood around, while the cross-street was partially blocked off.
I was wondering what the locals would think of all of us looky-loos. A couple of them were in the audience chatting with us visitors, and swapping stories about the family, in particular what a great Halloween party they would always throw for the local kids.
A couple of miles down the road was the Apple store (#5 I think), on University avenue. Called “Steve’s Store” as he would show up from time to time. They to, had a makeshift memorial.
The staff left some post-its and pens outside.
A fitting tribute to someone who wanted to change the world for the better. And did.
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Distant Suns is primarily produced by a group of one, Mike Smithwick, the original author and designer,under the informal name of "First Light Software".
Mike is available for contract work in C/C++/Java, focussing primarily in the 3D arena but can also handle server side jobs, SDK and tool development,
and much much more!