Telescope Tour - Worldwide Telescope News

WorldWide Telescope Versus Google Sky in the Washington Post

admin — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:35:12 +0000

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?”"

Read the rest of the article here

Scoble First Look at WorldWide Telescope

admin — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:42:26 +0000

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.

See the orginal here

While waiting for the World Wide Telescope - Four More Online Telescopes

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:59:30 +0000

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 How big is the earth - this one in video!

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:56:11 +0000

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.

So you think the Earth is pretty big?

admin — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:03:23 +0000

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…..

Sneak Preview of Microsoft Worldwide Telescope at TED

admin — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:53:21 +0000

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.

Worldwide Telescope made Scoble Cry

admin — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:46:12 +0000

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.

World Wide Telescope Site Launched

admin — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:40:23 +0000

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.