On-the-go Astronomy goes live

Your smart phone just got even smarter thanks to the launch of Astronomy magazine’s new mobile site. In tandem with our newly updated website, www.astronomy.com, which launched this week, Kalmbach’s crack team of cyber gurus also created a new site optimized to deliver our most popular content in a mobile-friendly fashion.

Regardless of which flavor smart phone you use, just point your browser to http://m.astronomy.com (and make sure you bookmark it for easy future access). There, you’ll find a streamlined site delivering all of the latest astronomy news, and more than two-dozen blog entries by the magazine’s editors. In addition, a simple click of the Photos tab delivers the current jaw-dropping Photo of the Day, as well as the past week’s stunning astroimaging entries, each complete with a descriptive caption and equipment/exposure info.

While I routinely access Astronomy’s full website using Safari from my iPhone 4 without complaint, I must admit this optimized version provides a great experience too. It loads quickly, so I can’t really bash AT&T’s 3G network (this time), and the site very efficiently enables me to access to some of the magazine’s most interesting stuff from wherever I happen to be. An inquisitive fellow, I also typed in the mobile URL on my iPad (Safari) and from my desktop Mac (Firefox), expecting a cheesy smaller, resolution-locked display. Instead, both returned dynamically sized browser windows — meaning you should feel free to access this new mobile site on whatever hardware you happen to be using.

To my knowledge, this is the first mobile website Kalmbach’s crafted for its nearly two-dozen websites, and I think they got this one right out of the chute. In addition to the bennies I note above, they also included one-click access to the full website, as well as vice versa access from the full site. Another nice touch is their inclusion of a built-in feedback form right from the mobile site.

Knowing the caliber of Kalmbach’s cyber staff, I suspect they’re already thinking about Astronomy mobile v1.1. In the meantime, please check out this initial offering, send them your feedback, and enjoy!