Google Earth Gets Star-Gazing Add On

Tom F writes to mention BBC News is reporting that Google has released a new add on for Google Earth that will allow users to search a 3D rendition of over 1 million stars and 200 million galaxies called Google Sky. "Optional layers allow users to explore images from the Hubble Space Telescope as well as animations of lunar cycles. [...] Users can overlay the night sky with other information such as galaxies, constellations and detailed images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Imagery for the system came from six research institutions including the Digital Sky Survey Consortium, the Palomar Observatory in California and the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre. "

Comments

sounds...

[cosmocain]

...a bit like this? except for open source. hu. now, what should motivate me using the google-tool?

Re:sounds...

[morgan_greywolf]

Stellarium doesn't integrate with maps of the world, that's why. With Stellarium, you specify your location in Lat./Lon. or you specify the location of a known observatory. Then it will show you what the sky will look like at the specified (or current) time of day. With Google Earth, it would be easy to see where the stars are in the sky from anywhere on the planet.

Another suggestion

[Sierpinski]

I remember seeing a 3D Java app from some NASA (or some NASA-related website) where you could view, in simulated real-time, the position of all the known satellites that are currently orbiting the Earth. It included the ISS, and Mir before it was brought down. I wonder if Google has any plan to incorporate that kind of thing into their application. It would be pretty cool if I could zoom into my house, and see (real-time if possible) what satellites were passing over my house just by zooming out enough.

Re:Another suggestion

[CraftyJack]

You're thinking of JTrack:
science.nasa.gov/realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3D.html

Re:yes, but

[Matisaro]

No, why would someone who runs linux want to know what the outside looks like?

Stellarium is generated.

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

According to these guys, google sky is (like google earth) stitched together actual photographs.

Could be more accurate than a generated model.

Kids these days

[Chapter80]

No need to go outside anymore!

I told my kids about the upcoming eclipse, and I was excited to see them enthusiastic, until one said "What channel will it be on?"

Re:But, still no roads in Mexico on maps.google?

[Anonymous Coward]

First mexico needs to build this thing called "roads."

Re:But, still no roads in Mexico on maps.google?

[mce]

Didn't you know that eternal history of both earth and the universe revolves around the US? After all, have serious aliens ever landed outside the US? Whenever they threatened the world, haven't they destroyed New-York or Washington in particular? The Martians don't care about Mexico. Ask Hollywood, those people can know first hand.

Check out Celestia

[voislav98]

You should check out Celestia, which runs both on Windows and Linux (and Mac I think). http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ Nice thing about it is that it has a huge library of add-ons that people make from NASA images. IMHO with a little work it's far superior to commercial astronomy programs (such as Starry Night), although my Celestia folder is at about 2 GB right now.

Re:yes, but

[jollyreaper]

> My answer to your question: you can't slide beer under the door!

Sure you can, you just need to wait for it to go flat.