Is anyone on this site building mobile apps for astronomy?
I mostly program my own apps for the desktop using C++ and Java. I looked into building my own mobile apps and experimented a little. As an alternative to building mobile apps, I installed Termux on my Android phone and I am able to run my command line Java programs on it.
If you are a mobile app developer, do you have any apps on Google Play?
Hi Steven, a few days ago I published an Android app to open FITS files.
It's a native app built with Kotlin and some Java libraries. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cosmicastrophoto.celestview
Eduardo Piñas · Dec 10, 2025, 04:21 PM
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cosmicastrophoto.celestview
Maybe a link that links better for your app, Eduardo.
SonnyE · Dec 10, 2025, 07:20 PM
Eduardo Piñas · Dec 10, 2025, 04:21 PM
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cosmicastrophoto.celestview
Maybe a link that links better for your app, Eduardo.
Thanks, I didn't realize I hadn't included the link.
Thanks for your responses!
I did some further experimentation and I was able to run Java AWT code on my Android phone using an updated version of Termux, Termux:X11 and openjdk-21. I tried one of my Swing applications and it didn't display well, but AWT worked just fine. I wrote some astronomy AWT apps that I want to run on my phone. I purposely used AWT for those particular applications because I wanted native appearance and behaviour of my applications, rather than just setting the appearance in Swing using the UI Manager. Here's a test AWT app running on my phone:
📷 1000058739.png
I am pleased that now that I can deploy my visual applications on my phone without being limited to the command line. Also, my Standard C++ applications compile and run just fine on Termux and Termux X:11.
SonnyE · Dec 10, 2025, 07:20 PM
Eduardo Piñas · Dec 10, 2025, 04:21 PM
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cosmicastrophoto.celestview
Maybe a link that links better for your app, Eduardo.
I'm curious Eduardo, how did you get into mobile programming? Did you learn it from scratch? Or were you already fluent in other programming languages? I use Code::Blocks and NetBeans a lot and sometimes Visual Studio Code. I am mostly a desktop / database programmer, but I'm glad I found a solution to run my desktop applications on my phone, even if it isn't in a native way (see my post above).
Eduardo Piñas · Dec 10, 2025, 04:21 PM
Hi Steven, a few days ago I published an Android app to open FITS files.
It's a native app built with Kotlin and some Java libraries. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cosmicastrophoto.celestview
I just gave you a 5-star review! 😀
UPDATE: In my experimentation of Termux installations on my Android phone, I encountered one strange bug in the Java implementation on the platform. This bug relates to the java.lang.Math package. For some reason, on Termux, square roots using this package are calculated as meaningless numbers. Running the exact same program on macOS Ventura, Kubuntu Linux and Windows 11 does not replicate the problem; the application runs normally. Despite this limitation, there are programming workarounds as I developed an algorithm to calculate square roots accurately without using java.lang.Math. I am unaware if the developers of Termux are aware of this issue. Nonetheless, Termux and Termux X:11 are an option for running Java SE applications on Android to a limited extent. Here's another screen capture where I added a simple “Close” button to give my test application functionality.
📷 1000058754.png