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. "

sounds...

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

Re:sounds...

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.

Re:sounds...

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.

I think you phrased that poorly. Stellarium lets you see the sky from any point on earth, but you might find yourself using Google Maps (and/or Google Earth) to locate your point on earth. This is a fair point, but one that's moot after the first time you fire up Stellarium.

Another tool that's useful is celestia [shatters.net], a tool for displaying the known universe in 3D, and navigating through it. It's a nice compliment to stellarium, and I recommend both tools highly. To see what celestia is capable of, fire it up and press "d" for the demo. It's definitely one of those "oooh, ahhh" moments.

Stellarium is generated.

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

Could be more accurate than a generated model.

Re:sounds...

Some free-as-in-something possibilities that either run on linux or are web-based:

• YourSky [fourmilab.ch] - This is a very elaborate and sophisticated web-based service that makes star charts; free as in beer, but not open-source
• PlanetFinder [lightandmatter.com] - A java applet I wrote that concentrates on ease of use; good for figuring out what you're seeing with your naked eyes, or for planning observations, e.g., when is Mars going to rise so I can point my telescope at it?
• Stellarium - cool photorealistic planetarium (computer-generated images, as opposed to maps or photos); FOSS
• Celestia - lets you fly around the universe in 3d; FOSS
• Xephem - Sky maps. Free as in beer. Has some really nasty licensing issues. I used to use it a lot, and it worked great, but it's no longer available as a Debian package.

Note that they all do different things. They're not interchangeable.

Another suggestion

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:

This [heavens-above.com] website is good for this. I used it for looking at the ISS and it was accurate.

Re:Another suggestion

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

Re:Another suggestion

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

That is the one! Thanks for the link. I did a very feeble search earlier and couldn't find it.

So what's the next step?

Google Map, Google Earth, Google Sky.. I think it leads to Google Mind.

Imagine (ho ho!) what would hpapen if Google were to invest in thought-imaging technlogoy, in order to accurately represent thought processes. People would have G-Implants (tm) in their brain recording their thoughts for others ot peruse!

It's coming. Just you wait...

Kids these days

No need to go outside anymore!

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

If it's been released, where's the link

The article doesn't have a download link, and a Google search turns up nothing. Where's the link?

Re:

Update or install Google Earth from http://http//earth.google.com/download-earth.html [http]

You hear it here first

Just a month ago (July/12) ... GoogleSky [slashdot.org] .. talking about scanning astronomical plates.

The curious thing is that the .com domain was registered just on Jun/29!, and the domain name servers seems not to be updated yet (Aug/22), the basename url (googlesky.com) leads to a page stating the domain name is still on sale!. Vacation time at Google perhaps?

On another front, will GoogleSky add a time shift scroll control to the pages? Astronomical data can be computed if no image is available...

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

Google can map 200 million galaxies in 3-D but can't come up with a road map of Mexico? What's up?

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

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

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

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.

(c) google

There are already some great planetarium software applications available, like Stellarium. I see that it could be "more convenient" if Google Earth offered similar views, but I can't help but think that with the patchwork quality of Google Maps/Earth data, that the sky dataset will look like another half-finished project.

I may joke that in Google Sky, Rigel appears to be "(c) google" and Sirius will be a hotlink for digital radio, but there's a more serious concern of incomplete, poorly matched, patchwork quality, license-encumbered imagery that will blunt the value of Google Sky if they're not careful. Since Google's an ad company, I fail to see how this will actually bring them more revenue.

Millennium Falcon

If Han Solo had only had this software he could have mapped out the best route and made the Kessel Run in 9 parsecs.

Check out Celestia

You should check out Celestia, which runs both on Windows and Linux (and Mac I think). http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ [shatters.net] 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.

Accurate Simulation?

Can I turn on the light pollution layer so I get a true sense of the Los Angeles sky?

Re:yes, but

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

Re:yes, but

How could he look outside, without Windows?

Re:yes, but

> 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.

Re:Let's hope...

...or google images [google.com] is to perverts.