Google’s opened up the skies to us, as today they released the Sky View in the latest update for Google Earth. Just as you can zoom in on remote locations on Earth and see more and more details, you can zoom in on areas in space and new worlds appear. Zoom in on a perfect barred spiral galaxy, sneak a peak at the birth of a star, or get up-close and personal with the Andromeda Galaxy.
(Sorry for the extended absence, folks. Getting courses ready for the Fall semester has proven to be quite hectic. Classes have started, though, and things are settling down … knock on wood!)
Howdy folks! I’m an Instructional Designer at UT Dallas. I have a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education from Angelo State University and a Master’s in Computer Education and Cognitive Systems from the University of North Texas. I’ve been working in edtech for 11 years. Hmm… what else? I’m a *huge* fan of that little Irish band called U2, and I’m a bigtime Firefly/Serenity advocate.
So…pretty… :)What a great tool for teaching astronomy — especially in Dallas, where we’re lucky if we see any stars at night at all.
I just tried it out. Pretty cool little tool. It’s really about the next best thing to a planetarium. Which we do have a nice one here at UTA, but I still like to use Google Earth.
I wonder if we could talk Linden Lab in to installing this tool above Second Life? Like, you fly up, the sky fades to black, and then the stars fade into view.
That would be wonderful! Maybe in a future WindLight release. They’re working on some amazing sky features, and the results are beautiful.