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WorldWide Telescope Visualises the Night Sky
Posted by Gina Trapani at 7:45 AM on May 14, 2008
Windows only: Microsoft Research releases astronomy application WorldWide Telescope, software which offers "terabytes" of detailed telescope images of the night sky for exploration right on your desktop. Zoom, pan, and explore the solar system, galaxies and more using WorldWide Telescope. The BBC reports:
Collections include pictures from the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes, as well as the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. ... "Users can see the X-ray view of the sky, zoom into bright radiation clouds, and then cross-fade into the visible light view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from a thousand years ago," explained Roy Gould, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics.Check out WorldWide Telescope in action after the jump.
Via Gizmodo, here's a demo of WorldWide Telescope at the TED conference back in February.
WorldWide Telescope is a free download for Windows, and it requires DirectX to run.
Tags: astronomy | clips | downloads | featured windows download | maps | windows
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
AskTheAdmin
Posted 2:04 AM 14/5/08
Apparently my work machine isn't up to snuff to handle this :( I'll wait till I get home and give it a go.
This is very cool stuff! And the me of 15 years ago would be very jealous!
AskTheAdmin
superbryant88
Posted 2:54 AM 14/5/08
Ill try it but when I need a Space exploration fix I use Celestia [www.shatters.net] or Orbiter [orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk]
superbryant88
Intelman
Posted 3:27 AM 14/5/08
This is some pretty sweet stuff. Hopefully it will inspire little kids to become scientists.
Intelman
kureshii
Posted 4:27 AM 14/5/08
Wow, I saw the TED video some time ago and have been waiting for it to come out since. Microsoft may be making lots of mistakes, but at least some of that money is being put to good use.
Those system requirements are crazy though O_O I guess that puts ultraportables and older laptops out of the picture...
kureshii
S0und
Posted 5:05 AM 14/5/08
it's a bit strange, iam runing the setupwwt.exe but it's installing virtual earth instead of WWT.
S0und
NortonSnail
Posted 7:24 AM 14/5/08
Awesome! Hopefully there will be a Mac version some day. Many astronomers use Macs, so there is hope. :)
NortonSnail
Aanidaani
Posted 8:17 AM 14/5/08
For some reason it says it can't detect my internet connection, but there's nothing wrong with it. Anyone else have this problem?
Aanidaani
YachiraG
Posted 10:38 AM 14/5/08
Smooth install, no problems at all. Puts Google Earth's "Sky" feature to shame!
Pentium 4
1 gig
YachiraG
LastVigilante
Posted 1:30 PM 14/5/08
@superbryant88: I'd have to second your recommendation of Celestia.
I tried Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope and I was quite impressed. I like it much better than Google Sky. Though, my favorite free planetarium software is Stellarium, which is less about the photography and Hubble shots, and much more useful and easy-to-use guide for users to go outside and find objects in the night sky for realsies.
LastVigilante
redxeth
Posted 2:01 PM 14/5/08
Figured out my install issue-- be sure to delete any existing setup.exe files in your Downloads directory!
redxeth
redxeth
Posted 2:00 PM 14/5/08
@redxeth-- figured it out. Be sure to delete setup.exe from your Download directory-- apparently the setupwwt.exe is expanded into setup.exe.
redxeth
Mysterius
Posted 1:57 PM 14/5/08
Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope looks much more awesome than Google Sky...
.. but at least I can run Google Earth. And browse Google's online sky chart.
The system requirements for Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope... ? :(
Commend them for their great work, though. Guess I'll just have to wait till I have a chance to borrow someone else's machine to try it out myself. :)
Mysterius
redxeth
Posted 1:55 PM 14/5/08
Install issue for me as well-- I try to run setupwwt.exe but it wants to install Virtual PC instead!
redxeth
ManfredSnookie
Posted 3:37 AM 14/5/08
I like Stellarium
ManfredSnookie
vw195
Posted 11:50 PM 14/5/08
Google Sky sucks because it is real time and time cannot be controlled
vw195
mexman
Posted 11:49 PM 14/5/08
Anyone try this using VMware Fusion?
mexman
an2an
Posted 11:49 PM 14/5/08
This is shockingly Brilliant. It makes me wonder what i'll be saying when i'm 50. "You kids with your new fancy consoles! Back in the day, we only had Xbox 360, PS3 and WorldWide Telescope."
I truly appreciate this program, as it just looks like something i want to use, meaning it will be appealing to many other toungsters out there, and if young people get involved in something so educational - being able to develop an interest in it as well - means the kids of the future WILL be smarter than us, and technology WILL just keep on improving.
an2an
busbodger
Posted 12:17 AM 15/5/08
So where is the Linux version? Har har har...
Guess I might occasionally be forced to boot into Windows every once in a while.
Maybe somebody needs to come up with a WindowsLiveCD (just like Linux)... GRIN!
Big fan of Celestia, Stellarium and KStars in Linux.
busbodger
exhilaration
Posted 4:02 AM 15/5/08
Maybe somebody needs to come up with a WindowsLiveCD
Google BartPE, I'm sure LH has covered it.
Stellarium, which is less about the photography and Hubble shots, and much more useful and easy-to-use guide for users to go outside and find objects in the night sky for realsies.
True that. Need to know exactly where the moon will be at a specific date/time/location and exactly what it'll look like? Stellarium can do that, it can even simulate atmospheric conditions.
exhilaration
pierre
Posted 3:17 PM 15/5/08
I'm gonna give this a try for sure.
I'm a scientist when I was 3 years old.
I retired a year after.
...
The video reminds me of "An Inconvenient Truth" documentary.
pierre