And the baths of all the western stars, until I die

May 6, 2007 10:34 PM

Under alien skies: Start with the simply stunning Exosolar, a flash-based interface for navigating through 2,000 nearer stars in 3-D, including all discovered planets outside our solar system. See what the skies would look like from other planets and suns. Explore star maps from many science fiction universes, from Star Trek to Dune. Watch the Big Dipper change its shape over a hundred thousand years. Zoom into a face-on map of the Milky Way that would cover 16 square meters if printed, and see the Atlas of the Universe. [prev. on extrasolar planets, prev. on star maps]
posted by blahblahblah (9 comments total)

that Exosolar thingie makes me want to build up a fleet of battleships (to escort the colonizers) as i go from star to star.... space is going to be so fun to conquer.
posted by dopamine at 10:43 PM on May 6, 2007

thanks, 3blahs, flagged comprehensive nerdipedia
posted by acro at 10:55 PM on May 6, 2007

Thats awsome. Cool post.

dopamine, your going to need to look into planet destroying capabilities
posted by BostonJake at 11:00 PM on May 6, 2007

Poor Pluto. Banished from our happy little neighborhood.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 11:37 PM on May 6, 2007

Actually I was quite happy to see that Pluto wasn't on the list. Space just isn't a place to be sentimental.
posted by Citizen Premier at 12:10 AM on May 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

blah^3 - this is gold. My eldest has just started "doing" Astronomy at school and now cannot wait to show this to her class tomorrow.
posted by dangerousdan at 2:27 AM on May 7, 2007

Thanks for the pointer. Will explore more later!

I must mention my favorite though: www.shatters.net/celestia

Alhough you do have to download & install an app, it's not web-based... it is worth it.
posted by sea at 5:26 AM on May 7, 2007

I'm the author of the Project Rho 3D star map site, and I'd like to point out that the rest of the site has instructions on how to make your own star maps. Teachers of astronomy and trigonometry may find this useful.
posted by Nyrath at 6:07 AM on May 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

Very nice post - thanks for putting a good scope on my Monday.
posted by mctsonic at 7:52 AM on May 7, 2007