Connect IQ: Solar System Live

After the excitement of this year’s solar eclipse it’s only natural for people to turn their attention to astronomy and stargazing. With the Connect IQ store and the Solar System Live widget you can be part of the stargazing and have the solar system map right on your wrist.

With the Solar System Live widget, you can gain a better understanding of our solar system or simply increase your astronomy knowledge if you are a stargazer. The Solar System Live widget displays the real-time current position of planets (from Mercury to Pluto) and their orbits in the heliocentric referential. The moon is also displayed, as well as asteroid belts and distance between planets.

The Solar System Live widget displays which planets are present in the night sky on the current date and at future or past dates (any planet on the side of the Sun, i.e. visible during daytime, will not be visible during night). The widget will also help you know why such planets are not observable in the night sky (because of their current location on the sun’s side) and when they will become observable (by time-shifting to the future).

Thinking of launching to Mars? The Solar System Live Widget will also quickly evaluate the best periods for launch to Mars or other planets, in direct (conjunction-class) and opposition-class missions. The widget will also display a solar system map with the Moon, Earth and Sun to help explain our different Moon phases.

The Connect IQ store is available on a wide range of Garmin products across all markets and each app, widget, watch face, and data field can be downloaded at no charge to the user. The Connect IQ Store can be found at apps.garmin.com or in the device tab of Garmin Connect. It can also be found in the device page of Garmin Express, or the More section of Garmin Connect Mobile. To learn more about developing a Connect IQ app, visit developer.garmin.com.

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