In this episode, Daddy Troy demonstrates some software that will encourage your child to learn about space. Specifically he looks at Google Earth, Google Moon, Google Mars, satellite tracking software from NASA, and some astronomy and satellite tracking iphone apps called GoSatWatch, GoSkyWatch and Star Walk. DadLabs Ep. 553 Gear Daddy is brought to you by BabyBjorn.

DADDY TROY: Welcome back to DadLabs. I'm Daddy Troy and today we're going to look at some software that will help get your kids interested in space. Specifically we're going to look at Google Earth, Google Moon, Google Mars, a NASA web application that helps you find satellites in the night sky, an iPhone application the helps you find satellites in the night sky and two iPhone astronomy programs. Stick around I'll tell you all about it.

This episode is sponsored by Baby Bjorn. My guess is that you've used Google Maps before but in addition Google offers a program called Google Earth which allows you to zoom in and out on our planet. You can find addresses such as your own. Kids love to see their house from space. Or you could go find Grandma's house or the beach you went to last summer. More importantly this program sets a child up to spatially understand what we mean when we say we live on a round ball that floats in space.

Google Earth also comes with Google Moon and Google Mars. Starting at 5 years old a kid can manipulate this program much as they would a video game. Flying around, finding hidden features like pictures taken from the Apollo Space Craft or actually seeing an astronaut on the moon. This feature is also available for Mars, allowing you to find the Mars Rovers and for my money, which is free, it's something that I can really dig into and enjoy with my kids.

Next up finding satellites in the night sky. On a clear night you can often see satellites with the naked eye as they fly over head. If your timing is right you can see extra big satellites like the Space Station or even better yet, the Space Shuttle as it's docking to the Space Station. In order to predict when certain satellites are overhead you can go to NASA's website and find a calculator that will show you the next visible sighting at your location.

If you prefer a more graphically rich program try GoSatWatch. It's an iPhone app from a company called GoSoftworks that helps you find satellites in the night sky. It will chart the satellites either onto a globe or show them from your perspective in the night sky proper. It will show you satellites such as the international Space Station, satellite radio satellites or even satellites from other countries.

And finally lets look at some astronomy programs that function as planetariums. Among many offerings that the iPhone has, two stand out. First StarWalk is a graphically rich program that my six year old and his dad really enjoy. What I love about this program is that the creatures associated with the constellations appear as you point to a particular one. They fade in and fade out and they help your kid better remember the night sky.

GoSkyWatch is an equally rich program and is on par with StarWalk. It has an amazing feature that uses your iPhones accelerometer. You just point your iPhone to the night sky and it shows you what you're looking at.

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