An Interactive Map of the Night Sky

February 17, 2009 9:20 PM

Star Viewer ― merging Google Earth (Sky) with Hubblecast videos to learn more about what you're seeing in the night sky.

Alternatively, if you have Google Earth 4.3 or above you can watch these videos in Google Earth (Sky). Virtual Tourism has its own layer in the Sky section of Google Earth that includes most of the videos on this page. The layer can be found under the 'Education Center' folder. Hubblecast also now have a layer of videos in Google Earth.

Alternatively you can download this kml of the videos.

The checkboxes at the top of the page will turn on a number of layers. The 'Sat' checkbox will turn on the locations of satellites orbiting the Earth. The 'Hubble' checkbox will turn on the current position of Hubble. The 'Constellations' checkbox will turn on the constellations.

posted by netbros (4 comments total)

brilliant. although difficult to navigate. i found a star video that was explaining something important but then halfway through i accidentally X'd out and now i can't find it again.
the Universe is frustrating...
Question for Kip: You ever come across anything... like time travel?
Kip: Easy, I've already looked into it for myself.
posted by minimalmark at 10:13 PM on February 17, 2009

Hmmmm, type the dialog from the Planetarium in Fallout 3 as an act of extreme, no-holds-barred "favorite whoring"? Or go to work with my sense of dignity intact?
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 6:14 AM on February 18, 2009

I do wish the explore window for this looked more like what I see when I look at the night sky with things like Orion, Cygnus and Ursa Major really obvious and the magnitude 4-6 stuff invisible or nearly so. Also, the Milky Way as a big sine wave is kind of putting me off my feed.

OK, what I really want is a pair off goggles that will display this as an overlay of the night sky.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 6:24 AM on February 18, 2009

I have not had time to download it myself, but how does it compare to WorldWide Telescope?
posted by jkaczor at 11:47 AM on February 18, 2009