Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Daniel Fischer, Knigswinter, Germany — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:48:33 GMT

The WorldWide Telescope was already demonstrated in October 2007 at an astronomy outreach conference in Greece - and managed to impress us with its smooth GUI (until it crashed deeply :-) and depth of data bases accessed seamlessly. See http://cosmos4u.blogspot.com/2008/02/microsofts-worldwide-telescope-gets.html for some notes.

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

steve smyth — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:55:10 GMT

nice to see you excited, Al...must be a really cool gadget...

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Carl, Cincinnati, OH — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:50:11 GMT

Very cool, but how is it different from all the other astronomy software?

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

PD Milwaukee, WI — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:15:51 GMT

It appears that the software will be offered free to the people in the Astronomy and Educational fields. While Microsoft's efforts are noble, Google has given people the Night Sky for free.

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Greg, Iowa — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:17:11 GMT

is it possible to have these websites track the directions galaxies are going or even better, back track where the galaxies have come from? Perhaps then we can find where the center of the universe is, where the big bang took place

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

mark, houston, tx — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:32:34 GMT

check out http://www.haydenplanetarium.com. you can download freeware based on data from the sloan digital sky survey. very easy to install. you can fly across the cosmos in 3D and see thousands of galaxies from billions of light years away!

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Gary Long Island, N.Y. — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:41:38 GMT

I can't tell how great it's going to be when you get this running.I have been star gazing for over 60 years.I'm glad to be around to see this. Thanks.

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Mike, Union City, NJ — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:57:06 GMT

Anyone interested in this should also be made aware of Celestia. Celestia is free, and it really is more than a virtual telescope. It's more like a virtual "star ship". Instead of just looking at a star, you can visit it, turn, and look to see what our star looks like from another. The 3D renderings of the planets, asteroids, moons, and comets, of our own solar system are stunning.

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

ptp lex ky — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:55:34 GMT

space is boring

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

brett, Portland OR — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:56:26 GMT

Ummm... what exactly is the big deal? Google sky has been around for a while now. This simply appears to be microsoft attempting to play catch up.

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

TheFallibleFiend, LORTON, VA — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:57:13 GMT

I look forward to using this with my kids, my own children as well, perhaps, as some of the kids I tutor.

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Josh Columbia, MO — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:19:35 GMT

I have been usind celestia for a few years now. This sounds very similar.
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Koreman, netherlands — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:22:16 GMT

@Greg, Iowa (Sent Thursday, February 28, 2008 10:17 AM)

The Big Bang took place everywhere. The center of the universe is everywhere. Spacetime had different properties long ago, the laws of physics were different, some didn't exist. Go further back and you'll end up at a point that there was no such thing as spacetime as we are familiar with nowadays. Time and locations did not exist. Neither did things like energy, mass and particles. Building blocks fall apart to weird entities in a very exotic universe which only can be comprehended for a certain amount by using extremely complex math.

Hopefully WWT will provide info on background radiation and other stuff on the edge of the 'visible' universe.

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Spacebeagle — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:23:23 GMT

Hello. Don't click on Mark's URL; he intended that it read .org instead of .com:

http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/universe/

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Pegson, Newark, NJ — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:44:37 GMT

the power of the worldwide telescope is that it stitches together images from different telescopes to give you an amazing experience. You have to see this to believe it! I don't see how it matters that an early concept some time back - boy we are a tough bunch of critics, huh? It's easier to speak than to do though... I am not a huge fan of MS but this is waaay better than Google sky or other astronomy software you may have used - you have got to see the clarity of this thing to believe it.

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Frank Glover — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:47:17 GMT

Greg, the expansion is uniform. No matter where you are in the Universe, the center of expansion appears to be where YOU are.

As a PBS promo says, 'The Universe has no center, and no edge.'

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

John, Boulder, CO — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:49:51 GMT

Sounds like nothing more than another Microsoft ripoff to me!

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Scott, Phoenix, AZ — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:54:27 GMT

How big is space? If I were to travel in one direction forever, how far could I go before something would stop me? Assuming I lived forever and could travel through celestial bodies and gravitational fields, what is it that would stop me? What is on the other side of that? How far does that go? So on and so on. It's mind boggling!

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Big Air Bob, Seattle, WA — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:59:09 GMT

For all the MS bashers:

1. Google bought a company called Keyhole whose technology is the basis for Google Earth. If you're going to bash MS for 'playing catch-up' then make sure and bash Google for an acquisition instead of in-house development.

2. MS researcher Jim Gray had been working on this technology long before Google Earth was around, so MS is hardly playing 'catch-up'

3. To John from Boulder CO: Why is this a 'ripoff'? And what are the other MS 'ripoffs'?

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

David, Asheville, NC — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:32:33 GMT

You might also be interested in Uniview, a true 3D + time visualization platform using NASA's Digital Universe Atlas. It's been out for a few years and installed at multiple digital planetariums around the world:
http://www.scalingtheuniverse.com

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Keith J. Farmer, Redmond, WA — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 02:55:35 GMT

brett: Do your research.

SkyServer has been around for a long time (http://cas.sdss.org/dr6/en/). Same with TerraServer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraserver.com).

Both were Microsoft projects.

Celestia: ehh.. I prefer Starry Night. Celestia's cute, but not very useful, and has nothing on what I've seen on WWT.

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Simon Church, Seattle, WA — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:07:12 GMT

WWT sounds fantastic, I can't wait to see it.
My one hope is that WWT includes the ability to control a local telescope.

If WWT sounds interesting I suggest that you check out WinStars. Last year while looking for s/w to drive a motorised telescope I came across WinStars. It's a very well developed observation / planetarium and Telescope control and program.
( http://www.winstars.net/english/ )
I think Stellarium has slightly better 3D Gfx manipulation but WinStars is streets ahead in its Viewing animation and tracking abilities.
Google sky is a great idea but it looks quite sad compared to both these programmes.

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

carl napa california — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:38:43 GMT

i didnt like google earthes space view because it wouldnt let me see any of the planets and it would allways freez up on me

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

charlie, Washington, DC — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:23:59 GMT

Wow...What a great tool to share with kids...hope there might be some labs developed to help parents

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Walt, Morgan Hill, CA — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:59:37 GMT

This maybe the killer app that makes it worth the extra bucks to upgrade to a high end GPU and give Vista (ahem!)the boost it needs for wider acceptence.

Looking at the dates of the comments, it appears I'm getting the news late at my cave.

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Daniel Lough, Sunderland, England — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:24:04 GMT

Wow, this sounds like a really cool plan, but wont it cost a load of money to run??

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

James, England, UK — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:27:54 GMT

I really do like the idea of a software that lets you sneak a peek into the universe. How will we know how if some of them are true and not just faked? Apart form that, its a really great idea to help us understand our universe!

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Martin Knight, Sunderland, UK — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:31:02 GMT

It's pretty cool, but I don't think enough people will care!

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

george the monkey sunderland — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:34:18 GMT

i think this is really cool it will cost $millions$

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

conholio sunderland — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:21:14 GMT

i like the sound of this it sounds co cool

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

ankara nakliyat — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:19:36 GMT

good article.
thanks

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

Dan L — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:16:26 GMT

WOW WOW WOW! I installed and ran it for the first time last night. It rocked my socks off! It is the single best educational tool about space I have ever seen. I wish I were 10 yrs old again! The kids and teachers of the world are going to eat this up! You could spend hours and hours learning about anything the universe has to offer, and all in stunning detail and colors. AND it has ASCOM hooks that will let you control your telescope from it, that is just gravy!

Sneak peek at the virtual universe

ankara nakliyat — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:19:38 GMT

Thank you for that information