Microsoft comes out with super cool World Wide Telescope

This looks like a home run

[Clark]

Perhaps the best thing to ever come out of Microsoft's enormous R&D work. The World Wide Telescope [wwtelescope.com].

[Tourz]

hmm, that's some good hype. I look forward to downloading the program. The video at TED is pretty good.

[edited by: Tourz at 9:55 pm (utc) on Feb. 29, 2008]

[skipfactor]

If you can't whip Google on Earth, look to the stars. Too cool.

[bill]

You forget that the Microsoft TerraServer predates Google Earth by several years.

[skipfactor]

Didn't forget, was thinking usage. Perhaps I missed it but I haven't seen the CNNs (MSM) using TS, only Google Earth. I call that a whipping considering TS preceded it.

[Clark]

That Terra Server was awesome. If I recall correctly though, Microsoft bought them after the product came out of an independent company.

[weeks]

Microsoft bought them after the product came out of an independent company.

That's a good thing on this board. We like that.

[crobb305]

The videos show nothing about what World wide Telescope is. Just show a bunch of kids saying "wow".

[bateman_ap]

You can see an example of the tech here

[ted.com...]

[httpwebwitch]

oooh, that's going to be fun.

I'm wondering is it just deep sky exploration, or does it also do planets? I mean, will WWT help me know where in the sky I should look for Jupiter on a particular evening? I realize there are lots of softwares out there that do orbital mechanics, and I hope WWT does it too.

[TammyJo]

Thanks for posting the link to the "talk" and presentation! Sounds/Looks awesome!

[rj87uk]

That talk was pretty cool! Nice!

[mikedee]

This is exactly the same as PhotoSynth [labs.live.com] but with space pictures instead of holiday snaps (think lots of black to hide the edges).

[dakuma]

Similar to PhotoSynth yes, and just as cool :) An Astronomer buddy of mine is going to love this.

[LeoXIV]

i looked at the video, looks really cool.

on top of that, i am happy that finally i read something new here before digg.

[gibbergibber]

It's cool but it won't have wide appeal. The earth has a lot more variety than the night sky, at least to a typical human's eyes.

[BillyS]

Microsoft playing the Google game.

[annej]

Google is playing too.

[earth.google.com...]

[ByronM]

I think its fascinating to finally see a "civilian" facing application like this for the cosmos.

It would be really awesome if it can compile a local database as well and integrate with consumer telescopes that have on board star navigation systems so you can "Point & Click" for photography and a deeper understanding of what you're looking at.

[swa66]

Google has this for a long time already

[mikedee]

I think its fascinating to finally see a "civilian" facing application like this for the cosmos.

[earth.google.com...]
[shatters.net...]
[edu.kde.org...]
[wikisky.org...]

Finally?

Maybe you meant

"I think its fascinating to finally see a "civilian" facing application like this for the cosmos made by Microsoft."

Most of the local software will connect to your telescope without a problem.