Google Earth - Astronomy

[vinnym86]

First off, for those who don't know what Google Earth is, its a great tool. You can use it for directions, knowledge of your general surroundings, or just to kill time and learn something while you're at it.

Anyway, There is a new feature called Sky and Earth. I've been looking around for hours now (as I am bed-ridden with a fever) and i'm just taken aback by the beauty that surrounds our galaxy. Never much an astronomer, I've stumbled upon some ridiculously breath-taking images which i've later looked up and read about. Download Google Earth, its free, and check it out yourself. Here are a few impressive finds:

"Pillars of Creation" - Nebula M16


"Cat's Eye" - Nebula NGC 6543


"Lagoon" - Nebula 6523


Quasar 3C120

[Damien]

Used to have it and so have...quite a few other people. Everytime they get it or I had it, tends to do something to your comp. IDk why. I might again though, it was fun.

[vinnym86]

i've always had it, never did anything funny to mine but use up a lot of virtual memory. this is the first time i used the astronomy feature though, and i can't get enough of it.

[YogsVR4]

Very cool

[xeroinfinity]

I like google earth, you can view all sorts of images at street level.
Never know who you'll see either.

Didnt know about the Astronomy features, I'll have to check that out!

You like the Crab Nebula in my sig

[AtomicAutoSports]

Google Earth is SOOO much fun, although it does take up a bit of space. That program is a lot of fun though...I don't think it's on Google Earth, but it could be..if you ask for directions from New York to Paris, it tells you to swim across the ocean instead of take a plane hahahahaha

['97ventureowner]

Thanks for the info! My kids will love to hear about that new feature. I got them hooked on the regular features of Google Earth and they spend time "going from home to their schools or relatives houses They will be excited to check out that new feature. I remember when we went from dialup to FiOS that was one of the first new things I downloaded to check out, always heard about it but couldn't do anything on the old dialup.

[xeroinfinity]

I'm on dial up and it works jjust a little slow loading at the lowest level. Which isnt realy good unless you pay for the premium service.

I saw on TV the other day , they were talking about privacy and google earth, they zoomed in on street level to some lady walking with her kids. Then they printed a pic of them and went and found where the lady lived and showed her they could see her and followed her home. Didnt think you could get live streams but appearently you can with the pay version.

Google earth does have a icon to switch to astronomy(sky view), but it wouldnt work right on dial up for some reason.

Fun to play with though, and thankx for posting this vinny !
I'm sure I'll get the sky view to work this evening.

[vinnym86]

no problem everyone.
As for the privacy thing, that's wierd. I zoomed in as much as i can to where I live, and I can see exactly where my unit is, even though I live in a populated condominium. Even then, the resolution is bad enough that I can't make out what cars are in the parking lot. I don't think the paid version has any better resolution. The only hi-def resolutions should be in densely populated areas such as NYC, it would cost google way too much to get access to hi-def pictures of suburbia throughout America.
also, yeah, the "crab" nebula was my first find, then the "burning eye" and the "trifid". its all spectacular.

[xeroinfinity]

Yeah i dont see much detail either , nothing like they showed on tv.

I know this other site was the first place I found Sat images years ago. http://www.terraserver.com/
That one does have better pix, but you have to pay for it.

The NASA site links to a bunch of sites with all thier different telescopes, xray, IR, Gamma.. and the dino hubble.
Its still hard to believe that the Hubble Tele. cant see Jupiter up close, but it can see 100 million light years away.

['97ventureowner]

On the resolution part, do you have your computer set to the optimum resoultion for viewing their site? Everytime I log on to Google Earth I get a message that my computer is not set to 1024x728, and should be to get the best quality picture. Another thing I noticed is that their pictures aren't so current. Last year I noticed the pictures displayed were taken in 2003,( as I has a dumpster in my long driveway for a month and it appears in that pic. Today when I logged on I noticed they were taken around 2006 as I noticed a particular car parked in my side yard that I got rid of in the summer of 2006.
Wasn't there supposed to be a similar service launched about 2 years ago that had similar features to Google earth, but this service allowed better side views of buildings?

Originally Posted by xeroinfinity

Its still hard to believe that the Hubble Tele. cant see Jupiter up close, but it can see 100 million light years away.

Maybe the Hubble is near-sighted or farsighted??

[xeroinfinity]

yeah my resolutions 1024x768 .
I did notice the dates were different for different locations.
I think Google did the first beta for Google Earth a year ago or so. They added the 3D feature, which I havnt got to work where i was looking, not long ago. Probly larger cities hav the 3D.

I think that would make Hubble near sited, unable to see closer objects. Maybe it needs Lasik surgery .

[vinnym86]

I don't think its the Hubble taking pictures of the earth, probably some smaller satelite telescope.
as per resolution, i'm set at 1280x1024. And I meant the resolution of the photograph of the topography, it wouldn't matter what screen resolution you're on, the photograph will still be lacking detail at a certain distance.

[xeroinfinity]

yeah Hubble cant see earth worth a poop.

I checked out Google Sky lastnight and it was pretty awesome! I was up checking it out untill about 1am.
I think if I had highspeed internet the pics might look better. Deffinetly a good way to kill a night or day.