PITTSBURGH -- Those who love the lights of the big city may not love what those lights hide -- the stars in the night sky.
But amateur stargazers may have an easier time spotting their favorite constellations, thanks to something developed by two Pittsburgh men.
A new cell phone application can pinpoint the constellations above and is not only available on many new cell phones, it's also free.
John Taylor teamed up with one of his colleagues to create Skymap
"When I point this at the sky at night, the stars I can actually see in Pittsburgh are the ones I see right in front of me on this map," said Taylor, as he demonstrated the cell phone application to Channel 4 Action News' Michelle Wright
Taylor works for Google in Pittsburgh. He and his co-worker, Kevin Serafina, who's from New Kensington, developed the new app.
"I've done a lot of work that would be behind the scenes, but never something that people would see and I could actually point to and say, 'I did this!' So it's really cool," Serafina said.
The pair got the idea for Skymap when they heard about the cell phone operating system called Android.
All of the major phone carriers now have phones that now run on that system that has three things you need to map the sky: a GPS for exact location, the time of day and it can sense the direction you're pointing the phone.
"I switch the phone sensors on and the phone not only knows where I am on Earth, but it also knows which direction I'm pointing the phone. You can see it moving around as I move the phone around," Taylor said.
Using the application, Taylor was able to find Wright's Zodiac sign, Libra, in a matter of seconds.
Serafina said he was always was fascinated by Pittsburgh's night sky.
"Growing up, we lived east of the city and there was a lot of stars viewable in the back yard. Although when you looked toward the city, you could see the glow of the steel mills," Serafina said.
The project has taken Serafina far beyond the glow of the steel mills -- it's being used around the globe.
"We've had feedback from people from all over the world. People from Greece, people from Australia, people from all across the U.S.," Serafina said.
"It's not all astronomy geeks. Its ordinary people find this really exciting. They like to be outside with their family. It's fathers showing the sky to their children. It's people out with their partners, showing them, 'That's your star sign over there.' People are just fascinated by the heavens," said Taylor. The men were able to develop app in the Pittsburgh Google office because Google allows employees to spend 20 percent of their time on the job working on something of their choice.
The app is free to download on any phone and will work as long as your phone runs on the android operating system.
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