Space Exposures app for iPhone and iPad

Space Exposures is a kind of mini arcade game that gives you the chance to experience both the joy and the frustration that we astrophotographers can sometimes feel during a clear, starry night. Feel the thrill of delight from a perfectly captured photo, and despair in the utter frustration at all the clouds that constantly get in the way.

The idea of the game is for you as an astrophotographer to try to take as many good photos as possible, the better the photo the more points you get per hit. A good photo is when you use the right lens for the right object. For example, a large Northern lights needs a wide-angle lens (Short and wide) while a small planet requires a longer telephoto lens (Long and thin). To capture the perfect photo, you also need to hit the object so that it covers the entire film frame that is shot from the camera. If you only hit half or a small part of the object, you lose points. If you use the wrong lens on the wrong object, for example a wide-angle lens on a small planet, you also lose points.

You see the number of points you get for each hit registered, so you have to learn which lens gives the most points for each object. If you get a perfect hit, you’ll be rewarded with a little fanfare and fireworks. If you get several perfect hits in a row, you get a combination bonus (Combo) that increases with every perfect hit. If you miss an object or don’t get any perfect hits, your combination bonus will re-start from zero again.

To get through the night, you have to avoid colliding with clouds, the astrophotographer’s worst enemy. Every time you collide you lose a life (you start with three lives). You can break up the clouds by pressing on them, but it costs you 1000 points per cloud you break up. It’s every astrophotographers dream to be able to blast away clouds in real life, and through this game I finally had the chance to make that dream come true.

A night lasts for 150 seconds. During dawn, last 10 seconds of the night, you can still take photos, but these aren’t worth as many points as the object isn’t as clearly visible during dawn. Keeping your eye on how much film you have left is also important. If you run out of film, you can pick up new rolls of film along the way.

Oh, by the way, this is a completely ad-free game.

Clear skies and fire away!