Google Skies Above
Observing >
Many of us have spent some time - OK, maybe too much time - playing with a computer program called Google Earth, available for free from Google for both Mac and Windows platforms. It is a detailed map of earth - that's it - but it is absurdly addictive for those of us who like to explore. Zooming down to just about anywhere on the planet, down to street level using satellite photos, is a virtual explorer's dream.
Well, as if it could get any better, it just recently did. Attached to the latest version of Google Earth is Google Sky, which attempts to do the same things for the heavens as Google Earth does for the planet.
Only now we're not globetrotters, skipping over the continents to see cities and mountains and monuments. Here we zip around the starry skies and explore the natural wonders there.
Opening up Google Sky will give you what seems like just a random array of white dots against a backdrop of constellations. Don't let the elementary school appearance fool you. What you are looking at is rich in big-person information.
Zooming into any area will reveal wall-to-wall stars of all colors and brightnesses. Here you will see the stars in their true colors: reds, whites, yellows, and blues.
Click on any highlighted named object and out pops a window of information about it, including type of object, description, and distance. And since Google is in charge here, there are links galore to online articles and images and blogs on the object you picked.
And, just as in Google Earth, you can add a variety of layers over the viewing area to enrich the exploring experience. This includes a layer for new backyard astronomers, a Hubble Showcase, one for the Moon and the planets, a User's Guide to Galaxies, and one called The Life of a Star.
And the background star field is no fake computer generated field, oh no.
During the 80's and 90's astronomers needed a highly detailed visual record of the sky, one reason of which was to help direct the celebrated Hubble Space Telescope though the celestial sphere. For the Northern Hemisphere, our own Palomar Observatory was used for this sky survey.
Specifically, it was the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope - a stone's throw away from the great Hale Telescope - that was the workhorse behind this endeavor. The millions of star images provided in that project paint the visual backdrop of Google Sky's northern star field.
Try a ride for yourself. First, obviously, make sure you have downloaded the latest version from earth.google.com. Then open it up and fly to Orion and see the rich, star forming area in the Nebula. Veer on over to the constellation Virgo and zoom in closer and closer until you see a lot of fuzzy, but organized clouds. Each of those are galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, millions of light years away, each with its own billions of stars.
"The Life of a Star" layer will take you through the skies to see real images of stars in their various stages, from nursery to supernova remnant.
Or just be an adventurer and discover the beauty of the heavens in an arbitrary way in your own sweet time.
Is Google Sky perfect? No, the program is still in its infancy. Not all stars and galaxies are identified. There are artifacts from the original images that haven't been cleaned up and may be confusing for the novice. And for some reason a placemark for the Japanese Imperial Palace showed up in the constellation Vulpecula, and one for the Reichstag is right there in Ursa Major. I kid you not.
But over all, and considering the price, Google Sky is great fun. It is full of information and brings out the voyager in us all. And if past Google offerings are any indication of where this is going, Google Sky will just get better and better. Have fun!
And until next time, clear skies - real and virtual.
Posted by Mark Ritter at 2007.10.21 01:52 PM | Comments (0)
