The most important thing I forgot for you/. ers is that since this a government contract, it's completely open source. You can download it from the SkyViewFTP site. --Keith
The project, called SkyServer, is the first in a series of initiatives to bring to the public "virtual telescopes".
I find this absolutely offensive! I started working on SkyView nearly seven years ago! The very first web interface went live in March of 1994. Since 1996, SkyView has been called itself "The Internet's Virtual Telescope."
I can understand that Microsoft is trying to generate enthusiasm and good PR for this, but it shouldn't be at the expense of accuracy and truth.
If you don't feel like waiting for Microsoft to make good and want to see pretty pictures (that also mean something to the professionals) check out SkyView. It already contains the Digitized Sky Survey which is an all-sky optical survey comprised of the Palomar plates made back in the 50's for the northern hemisphere and the SERC Southern Sky Survey for the southern hemisphere.
In addition, SkyView goes beyond the optical and has dozens of surveys ranging from radio wavelengths to gamma-rays.
For those who are curious as to how it works, you type in a coordinate or name of object you're interested in as well as the survey(s) you want to view. Your request then is processed and the image is literally created on the fly to match your specifications. For example, in the case of the Digitized Sky Survey, your request will typically be a composite of 10s of compressed images mosaicked together to produce a final image. This is also the reason why it may take up to a minute to display an image (it's a lot of geometric manipulation).
Also, as to not leave out other possibilities, if all you're looking for is optical images, the Space Telescope Science Institute has a DSS archive. It contains First and Second generation images (SkyView currently only has the First), though it cannot mosaic across different plates whereas SkyView can.
Finally, yes, I have a bit a vested interest in this. I wrote 95-99% of the code for SkyView up until I left a year ago (now in the capable hands of Laura MacDonald with Tom McGlynn as the principal investigator and originator).
Someone or some group may come along and do it better, but I hope they don't forget those who came before them and are here while they talk of what they'll do in the future.
Besides, who do you trust for your astronomy, NASA or Microsoft? (no Martian spacecraft were harmed in the creation of SkyView)
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The most important thing I forgot for you /. ers is that since this a government contract, it's completely open source. You can download it from the SkyView FTP site. --Keith
I find this absolutely offensive! I started working on SkyView nearly seven years ago! The very first web interface went live in March of 1994. Since 1996, SkyView has been called itself "The Internet's Virtual Telescope."
I can understand that Microsoft is trying to generate enthusiasm and good PR for this, but it shouldn't be at the expense of accuracy and truth.
If you don't feel like waiting for Microsoft to make good and want to see pretty pictures (that also mean something to the professionals) check out SkyView . It already contains the Digitized Sky Survey which is an all-sky optical survey comprised of the Palomar plates made back in the 50's for the northern hemisphere and the SERC Southern Sky Survey for the southern hemisphere.
In addition, SkyView goes beyond the optical and has dozens of surveys ranging from radio wavelengths to gamma-rays.
For those who are curious as to how it works, you type in a coordinate or name of object you're interested in as well as the survey(s) you want to view. Your request then is processed and the image is literally created on the fly to match your specifications. For example, in the case of the Digitized Sky Survey, your request will typically be a composite of 10s of compressed images mosaicked together to produce a final image. This is also the reason why it may take up to a minute to display an image (it's a lot of geometric manipulation).
Also, as to not leave out other possibilities, if all you're looking for is optical images, the Space Telescope Science Institute has a DSS archive. It contains First and Second generation images ( SkyView currently only has the First), though it cannot mosaic across different plates whereas SkyView can.
Finally, yes, I have a bit a vested interest in this. I wrote 95-99% of the code for SkyView up until I left a year ago (now in the capable hands of Laura MacDonald with Tom McGlynn as the principal investigator and originator).
Someone or some group may come along and do it better, but I hope they don't forget those who came before them and are here while they talk of what they'll do in the future.
Besides, who do you trust for your astronomy, NASA or Microsoft? (no Martian spacecraft were harmed in the creation of SkyView )
--Keith Scollick scollick@stsci.edu