So while the rest of us who are not Robert Scoble are still waiting to cry and experience Microsoft Research’s WorldWide telescope project that lets you zoom through the galaxy on your computer, Google is putting its not-quite-so-glitzy Google Sky software out on the Web. Glitzy or not (the site is a bit jerky), for astronomy buffs it is an amazing resource.
Google Sky was formerly available only within the Google Earth software, but now you can check it out with your browser. It lets you pan through the galaxy and check out different celestial bodies in ultraviolet, infrared, x-ray, or microwave light. The navigation is the familiar one you know from Google Maps, although I couldn’t immediately figure out how to zoom in and out. But I’m no rocket scientist. The best part about it is you can search the galaxy by typing astronomy terms into the search box. More details from the Google Lat Long Blog:
* Powerful search that lets you browse tens of thousands of named objects.
* Three optical sky surveys that show you what your naked eye would see if it had a really good zoom lens. Try switching to infrared, microwave, ultraviolet, or x-ray to see the sky in a completely different light. Or blend between these views to create unique visualizations on the fly.
* Galleries highlighting the best images from Hubble and many other telescopes.
* Current planet positions and constellations.
* Overlays of custom KML content. (Simply paste a Sky KML URL into the search box, just like on Google Maps.)
* Last but not least, the Earth & Sky podcasts gallery is not to be missed, particularly for those who run a classroom.
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Well this’ll stop me wasting my paycheck on any more astronomy gear.
not that I can see very much through the light pollution in Oakland.
Neat project. I hope this was somebody’s 20% time.
@ john those days at google are gone
Gotta love Google’s ability to take the wind out of Microsoft’s sails at every junction.
Google sky was available great!
This is nice, but it’s no replacement for a telescope.
OK, we get it. Scoble nearly cried!! Do you need to repeat it every post thats related to astronomy??
I’m still waiting for Google Ocean.
I was so excited and went to check it out with my kids that are science buffs and astronomy enthusiasts. They thought it was lame and not friendly. I would have to agree with them. I am bummed, because I like what Google does for the most part.
Whats the point of Google Ocean? Trying to find the best spot to fish?
This is really cool, and exciting for a mac user who will be unable to enjoy the WWT (at first anyway… hint hint). Although it does seem a far cry from WWT, it’s better than nothing and I’m sure it will get tons of play.
@10 no dude it’s for identifying all the garbage floating around
“I’m still waiting for Google Ocean.”
That’s behind Google Spelunking, and Google “the core” for those that want to waste hours of their lives roaming through pictures of the earth’s crust.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Core
And what about detailed mapping of the atmosphere at any given moment? Why rely on radar? Why can’t we see into into Kim Jong-Il’s numerous wives bedrooms at 3AM from our laptops on wifi too?
Frankly I’m a little disappointed with Google.
Looks cool. I’ll have to check it out.
It’s our guess Google Sky will improve quickly; they’re far from dumb; and they are *certainly not the first huge Web firm to put a beta version in front of millions of users, to get massive feedback and determine user preferences..
The Team
http://iserviceshop.blogspot.com
This is very nice. My childhood dream would come true. I’ll be able to see all the stars in my dream when I was young. Thanks Google makes my dream come true.
http://blog.inkjetoffice.com
http://www.inkjetoffice.com
A flash version of Google Sky would be better.
I might try to hack one together over the weekend using some code I wrote for Google Maps.
Wow, that’s totally awesome!
Weak. The imagery is spotty and the star colors are missing. But what is most surprisingly bad about GSky is that almost nothing is clickable. If you look at dedicated astro software like TheSky, even old versions from the early 90s, you will find that every single star, deep-space object (like galaxies), planet, asteroid, etc is clickable. Doing so brings up a wealth of information that Google could no doubt have scraped from a variety of sites but didn’t. Even the features that are here, like the microwave background radiation data, aren’t useful; where, for example, is the legend that correlates the microwave data’s color with the actual microwaves’ intensity? This feels more like an alpha to me, or as @4 sort of implies, like something released early to box out MS. Not that anyone really cares — how big is the astronomy market, anyway?
Google i can say they are the best.they always come out with gr8 ideas…
http://www.jeqq.com
i wann find my God in the sky!
Another awesome release by Google.
http://www.fantasysportsmatrix.com
weak. weak. weak. they are so fixated on one-upping MSFT that they’ve started to ship sub-par products. will wait for WWT … well worth the wait.
Looks like a pale copy of WWT.
it’s extremely buggy.
I saw WorldWide @ Techfest - it is awesome!
GUYS LISTEN !
I found a bug in Google moon.
Go where an American flag is standing and navigate a little, u will see that the shades are in the different direction, how can this be possible.
This thing was all made up by NASA, and two powerful lights were used while filming this whole Moon scene.
Do u still think that humans landed on moon. There is no air in moon, and look at the American flag, it is moving as there is a fast wind blowing. This is all a fake story build up by NASA, just like 9/11 was done by Bush !
Grow up Guys !
And oh yeah !
NASA fooled Google too ! Oh damn !
so is this a quick “me too” frm google. but they delivered before MS.
but im not impressed. why wud i want to use this.
i mean i will check itout once. cool. thats abt it.
This is a sub-par release from Google. The only people who will think this is a great release are those who have yet to experience the WWT.
@29
totally agreed.
Google is just rushing this out to steal some attention from Microsofts WWT.
It looks like it’s thrown together in a day or 2.
Very weak, and it shows that Google at some points is as clueless as any other company.
hi,, Its really great..
#3 Vijay - Actually this was done in our 20% time, as the press release stated.
One word: Celestia.
Is this like a “telescope-in-a-PC” thing?
bookmarked @ http://www.livbit.com
Gmail is down!!!!
the best thing about it is actually that when you click on the Earth in the bottom browser bar, it opens Google Maps in a new tab. try it.
@chroot: Celestia ftw totally
It seems that they are loading the tiles only from http://mw1.google.com. If they use mutiple sub-domains ( isn’t Steve Souders in google these days ?), the whole experience can be even better!
You are never going to let Scoble forget this, are you?