Saturday, December 3, 2011

Tidal Chronoscope

Application: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
Function: Solar, Lunar and Tidal Info
Rating: ***
Cost: $2.99




Growing up in South Dakota and sailing on inland lakes I did not have to worry much about tides.  Tides as we all know are the daily rise and fall of the worlds oceans which are influenced by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon.  Many locations usually experience two high tides and two low tides each day.  Some places experience only one high and one low tide each day. Tides can range as high as 55 feet in the Bay of Fundy to a few inches in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. These extreme high tides occurs around the time of the full or new moon when the gravitational forces of both the Sun and Moon are in phase reinforcing each other.

Since I have been sailing on the oceans and coastal areas I have learned to pay attention to the daily tides. Coastal cruising in Florida has been especially interesting at times.  I was contacted by ChronGlobal and asked if I would take a look at their app and give my impressions about their Tidal Chronoscope app.

The Chronoscope comes is both an iOS and Android version so we all can enjoy this app. The app attempts to provide data in three different areas that are easily selected with the soft keys at the bottom of the app. Tidal, Solar and Lunar data are depicted on a watch or chronograph face. The whole idea of the watch faces seems confusing at first but after working with it for a while it grows on you. Some users have commented that it is hard to use and figure out. We all use a watch to tell time why not use it to show astronomical data.

Tidal Features:
  • Dedicated watch face for graphic and relative depiction of current state of the tides at current or any give time up to 7 days.
  • GPS location based for instant and current tide information for local or optional locations
  • Choice of over 9400 tide stations world wide
  • Tide watch shows how many hours to high and low tide
  • Information screen for detailed tide event
  • Tidal indicator depicts current moon phase for predicting neap and spring tides
  • Option setting of watch for up to 7 day predictions for hourly/minute future tide predication simply by setting the watch to desired date and time.
  • Option predicting future current tide time by the hour
  • Choose between meters and feet for tidal depth
  • Option for updating time and distance interval
  • A turn of the watch crown for minute and hour increments provides future tidal data.
  • A tap on the date provides a date and hour wheel for future time setting or manual adjustment
  • Save your favorite port.
  • Option to follow the tides of another location using your current time zone.
Lunar Features:
  • Dedicated watch face for a graphic depiction of current moon phase and relative position of the moon in the sky.
  • GPS location based
  • Indicates position of the moon in the visible sky
  • Striped moon indicates where moon is in non visible sky
  • Depicts moon phase and all progressive phases
  • Depicts moon rise and moon set
  • Depicts the moon as it transits the visible and non visible sky
  • Predict moon position and phase up to 7 days by the hour or day by simply setting the watch to desired date and time
  • ‘Moon over’ and ‘Moon under’ depiction
  • A turn of the watch crown for minute and hour increments provides future moon data
  • A tap on the date provides a date and hour wheel for future time setting or manual adjustment
Solar Features:
  • Dedicated watch face for a graphic depiction of the current and relative position of the sun in the visible and non visible sky
  • GPS location based
  • Indicates relative position of the Sun in your location
  • Yellow sun indicates in visible sky
  • Blanked out sun indicates moon in non visible sky
  • Sunrise and sunset depiction
  • 7 day prediction up to 7 days by the hour or day by simply resetting the watch
  • A turn of the watch crown for minute and hour increments provides future sun data
  • A tap on the date provides a date and hour wheel for future time setting or manual adjustment
The app is very versatile and allows you to customize the look of your chronograph with several different styles and colors. If your looking for a unique and fun way of looking at Tide, Solar an Lunar data, check out ChronGlobal's Chronoscope app.

2 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete