Coming to iPhone near you: near-live UA telescope shots (Source: AZ Star) The iPhone just got even more far out - into space, that is. The new Transient Events iPhone and iPod Touch application is giving the public a front-row seat to the cataclysmic goings-on of the universe, using University of Arizona telescopes. "We're trying to get people energized and in tune that the sky changes a lot on a nightly basis," said Ed Beshore, director of the Catalina Sky Survey and a senior staff member at the UA's Lunar and Planetary Lab. The free application can be downloaded from the Apple iTunes store onto any iPhone or iPod Touch. Once downloaded, the application allows professional and amateur astronomers alike to receive real-time images of transient or changing objects in the night sky as observed by the Lunar and Planetary Lab's Catalina Sky Survey. Since 1998, the Catalina Sky Survey has been observing transient and near-Earth objects from Mount Bigelow in the Santa Catalina Mountains. On a good night, the sky survey can witness up to a dozen notable, changing objects in the universe. Based on personal preferences, the Transient Events application will alert users whenever the survey witnesses significant events, such as a supernova, moving asteroids or exploding galactic cores. The iPhone notification will provide four images of the event taken over 40 minutes. Date and time information also will be provided, as well as a finder chart that will allow users to locate the event using a home telescope. (5/3)