Google night Sky

[astroron]

Google night http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6955787.stm

[glenc]

I was about to post this but you did so first.

[IanL]

Just seen this on the BBC ticker on my desktop.

Google sky about to launch.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6955787.stm

Ian

[Ingo]

when does it launch?

[Starkler]

Looks like a great thing in getting people interested in astronomy :)

[astroron]

I have already put this on general chat

[Ingo]

It's up & available to download, definitely sucks it hard. Nothing like Stellarium or other products. I think it's just to give a view, not for the astronomer.

[Ingo]

It's up, definitely sucks it hard. Nothing like Stellarium or other products. I think it's just to give a view, not for the astronomer.

[GrahamL]

can you pull up specific targets with stellarium ?

[Ingo]

Yep. Tells you everything about the object in the left top corner. Very nice program.

[bojan]

Google reached out into space... New version of Google Earth shows sky as well.
Have a look at:
http://www.universetoday.com/2007/08/22/google-earth-for-astronomy/#more-11683

[iceman]

I've merged the 3 google night sky threads into one :)

[Omaroo]

I've just downloaded it and have fired it up. For the serious astronomer or not - I think that it's a potential killer app. For a first attempt it is incredible. The number of people that have now downloaded and used Google Earth is staggering - so to add this feature to the suite brings a tour of the night sky to millions more people who may never have thought of looking otherwise.

You can change your views to include a celestial compass, grids, etc. If there was an option to show a horizon line for you it would suit many, many people. Double-click on an object and Wiki fires up for you giving a full explanation of that object and a decent photo too. You can view the moon and the planets in motion for any given time.

I think that this is a very positive step to give the average Earth-bound non-astronomer a reason to look up and skip around the sky. Well done Google, I have to say. A bit more development and I reckon that it will be very good for most people.

Cheers
Chris

[Ingo]

I like the ability to zoom in & see everything, but I personally like the way stellarium does it. They have the night sky & it shows everything when zoomed out, not just a black sky with constellation lines. Horizon line would do some good.

[erick]

Been having a look.

For comparison, here is how Google Night Sky represents "Ruby Crucis" (DY Crucis, EsB 365) compared with Stellarium. Google is using photos rather than graphical representations - sometimes this is good, but probably it's usually bad for our purposes?

[Ric]

It definitely looks good, I have never used Google Earth but I think I shall download the free version and give it a go.

Cheers

[iceman]

You should definitely give Google Earth a go! What a killer app!

[Ric]

Just finished downloading and setting it up and I'm wrapped with it.

I've already learnt how to placemark my house, what a lot of fun. I should have got it ages ago and I'm already considering the upgrade.

Cheers

[erick]

Ric, now add your light pollution map overlay:-

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=63,404,0,0,1,0

[Ric]

Hi Eric I've downloaded the Oceania file so I can have a play and set it up tomorrow. I can feel the brain starting to fade and I don't wan't to muck it up.

It will be interesting to see what my favourite sites look like under the overlay.

Cheers

[erick]

My house is under orange :sadeyes:

My viewing locations are green, blue, just out of blue into the grey and grey. Nothing in the completely dark area.

[Ric]

Hi Erick, I worked out the LP overlay this morning, how cool is that.

My place is right on the edge of blue to grey but our place down the coast is right in the middle of a black area. No wonder my C8 performs so well down there.

Cheers

[Gargoyle_Steve]

I've been using Wiki Sky for a while - GoogleSky seems to be of a similar concept except that Wiki Sky is browser based, you don't have to install any new program - it DOES pull a lot of data though so it's broadband only.

http://www.wikisky.org/