Recomputing the Sky

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has unveiled the largest and clearest image of the night sky ever assembled. This so-called 'TeraPixel' sky map was generated with the help of some of Microsoft's latest HPC and parallel software assets. Quoting: 'Compared to the old sky image, the TeraPixel version is much more refined. With all the artifacts, seams and inconsistencies processed away, it looks like a true unified image of the sky above. It's like going from Super Mario Brothers on 1985-era Nintendo consoles to Halo 2 on Xbox 360s.'" You can view the image at Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope site — it requires the Silverlight plugin for Windows or Mac. No word at the site about Linux or whether Moonlight works there.

Comments

Moonlight 3.0.40818.0 on Linux here

[Svenne]

Nope. Doesn't work.

Re:Moonlight 3.0.40818.0 on Linux here

[AltairDusk]

Bud Light, the very worst example of American beer, the very worst in the world ever

Clearly you've never had the displeasure of drinking Natty Ice (Natural Light Ice) or Beast Ice (Milwaukee's Best Ice). Actually Beast in general is just awful but both of those will make Bud Light seem like beer of the gods.

Seems...

[mcgrew]

With all the artifacts, seams and inconsistencies processed away

It seems the seams are gone. Excellent! I'll have to see how this compares to Google Sky. I'll bet I'll still prefer NASA's closeups from their Picture of the Day Gallery, though.

Re:Getting ready for the MS bash

[pmontra]

They should have done it with JavaScript and JPEGs instead of using Silverlight, which doesn't work on my Linux.

Good enough as first bashing? .-)

Halo 2 on Xbox 360?

[Plastic Pencil]

Sorry to be the dick-ish correctionist, but isn't the proper analogy, at least Halo 3 on 360? Halo 2 was an Xbox 1 game from 2004.

And yes, Grizzly Adams did have a beard.