There’s a nice article in the Washington Post by Stephen Levy about the differences between Google Sky and Microsoft’s soon to be launched WorldWide Telescope.
“Maybe the best way to sum up the differences is that Google Sky is like
going into your back yard and finding that your eyes have been enhanced
by super telescopes. The WorldWide Telescope, on the other hand, is
like importing a multimillion-dollar planetarium onto your desktop,
with dazzling multimedia tours of distant galaxies available on demand,
and a nagging question forming in your head: “Is this on the quiz?”"
The Robert Scoble video featuring his first look at the Microsoft Worldwide Telescope is now up.
“This is the most innovative thing I’ve seen Microsoft do in years. It had a huge emotional impact on me, as I realized the way my son will see the Universe will forever change, thanks to the work of two guys in Microsoft Research (Curtis Wong and Jonathan Fay).”
It certainly looks impressive especially having guided tours available for the average man on the street - Can’t wait to try it out. Video after the break.
While we wait with baited breath for the Microsoft Worldwide Telescope here are 4 more telescopes with online access:
Bradford Robotic Telescope www.Telescope.org Telescope 14-inch-diameter Schmidt-Cassegrain Location Tenerife, Canary Islands Field of view From the north celestial pole to 52 degrees south Pictures back in Days, sometimes weeks Results 1,056 x 1,027-pixel color or black-and-white JPEGs Cost Free
Micro-Observatory mo-www.cfa.harvard.edu/MicroObservatory Telescope 6-inch-diameter Maksutov Location Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Amado, Arizona Field of view Northern celestial hemisphere to 48 degrees south Pictures back in Days, often overnight Results 650 x 500-pixel black-and-white GIFs Cost Free
Seeing in the Dark www.pbs.org/seeinginthedark/explore-the-sky Telescope 14-inch-diameter Schmidt-Cassegrain Location Mayhill, New Mexico Field of view Northern celestial hemisphere to about 45 degrees south Pictures back in Days to weeks Results 512 x 512-pixel black-and-white JPEGs Cost Free
Slooh www.slooh.com Telescope Two 14-inch-diameter Schmidt-Cassegrains — one for planets, the other for deep space Location Tenerife, Canary Islands, and Santiago, Chile Field of view Northern and southern celestial hemispheres Pictures back in Seconds Results 800 x 600-pixel color JPEGs Cost $100 per year for unlimited images
Another great representation of how small the earth really is in this video. We start off with the smallest planet, Mercury and scroll through each planet in turn, seeing how the size difference is huge till we get to our massive sun which then gets dwarfed by other suns.
I don’t know about you but I always thought the Earth was a pretty big place, after all still takes over 20hrs to fly to Sydney from London. But this series of images really brings home how small our little planet is.
Hmm, not so big when you compare the earth to Jupiter……
And compared to our very own big ball of fire the Earth is positively tiny.
Hang on a second! So at this scale our sun, which huge compared to the earth, is a dot compared to Antares - 700 times smaller. Kind of blows your mind…
And there’s the Milky Way 100,000 light years in diameter containing an estimated 200 BILLION stars like our sun and Antares. To put it into some sort of scale if the Milky Way was only 80 miles in diameter our Solar System would be a mere 2 mm across. Maybe 20 hours to Australia isn’t too bad after all…..
At the recent TED (technology, education, design) talk Roy Gould and Curtis Wong gave a great sneak preview of the Worldwide Telescope. It certainly whets the appetite for the official release.
Apparently an early demo that Robert Scoble enjoyed of the Microsoft Worldwide Telescope had a big impact on him - it even made him cry! The Scobleizer blog is one of the most influential tech blogs on the net and the writer Robert Scoble was invited to take an early peek at the much anticipated telescope.
“Like I said, sounds lame. How could that possibly be the most fabulous thing I’ve seen Microsoft do in years? And that’s not just me talking. My friends who’ve seen it say that I actually underhyped it. That’s the first time anyone has said I underhyped something when I was trying to be so over-the-top with hype. Read the rest of the post here.
Scoble has also promised an exclusive video of the software in action this week.
On 28th February Microsoft launched the website for the Worldwide Telescope. Promising the launch of the actual application some time in “Spring 2008″. According to the website the
” The WorldWide Telescope (WWT)rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes in the world for a seamless, guided exploration of the universe”
The WWT uses Microsoft’s’ high performance visual experience engine which allows you to seamlessly pan and zoom across the night sky. It certainly sounds like it will be a great application.
