Sky Archives

April 17, 2008

New Layers for Google Earth's Sky Mode - April 17

Just a quick note that Google has updated the layers for the Sky mode of Google Earth (viewable with GE 4.2 or the new 4.3 beta). We last had a big update to the Sky layers in January. So, I'm kind of surprised to see even more data added. But, I'm not going to complain!

So, today's update includes several new layers:

Current Sky Events - This layer folder now has two new additions: 1) Hubblecast - a layer of placemarks showing video clips from the Hubble Space Telescope team showing science mini-documentaries on various astronomical topics. The placemarks show the location of the objects discussed. 2) StarDate - StarDate is the public education and outreach arm of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory. These are radio broadcasts available in English and Spanish, and again placemark places discussed in each clip.
Education Center - This layer folder also has two new additions: 1) Celestron Skyscout - another astronomy layer which comes from the Celestron telescope company. They have developed Skyscout, which is a "personal planetarium" device that lets you point at objects in the sky and tells you what you are looking at (Read more about Skyscout). I'm guessing this layer is a sample of the content you would get if you had one of these Skyscout devices. 2) Virtual Tourism - this is a much more interesting layer. The layer actually comes from a project by Keir Clarke at Virtual Tourism. He created a Google Maps mashup called Star Viewer which uses the Sky API to show astronomy video clips. Now its a built-in layer for Google Earth's Sky.

There seems to be some problems with the "Our Solar System" layer at the moment. First, there seem to be two copies of each planet in slightly different positions. Double clicking on the planet in the layers doesn't fly you to the location either.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 25, 2008

Brightest Object Ever Observed in Google Sky

Last week, on the same day Arthur Clarke passed away, light from an object 7.5 billion light years away suddenly arrived at Earth. The light was brighter than any ever observed by astronomers. It was detected first in the form of a Gamma Ray Burst, and was so bright it was even visible briefly in normal light to the naked eye. According to NASA: "...it was 2.5 million times more luminous than the most luminous supernova ever recorded, making it the most intrinsically bright object ever observed by humans in the universe." See Sky & Telescope article where this photo came from:

Wow! What an amazing event. And the timing is simply uncanny. Stefan Geens posted about the remarkable coincidence today at OgleEarth and not only provides more details and links to interesting data about the object, but also has provided a KMZ file showing the exact location of the event Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. in Google Sky. The file also includes two image overlays from optical observations of the event (one close-up view, and a broader view).

The name of the object is officially GRB 080319B. GRB stands for Gamma Ray Burst, and the number is the date of the event. Given the proximity of the event to Arthur Clarke's death, I think it should be called the "Clarke Event".

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:52 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

March 13, 2008

Google Brings Sky from Google Earth to Maps

Google today has released a more complete implementation of the Google Sky data to Google Maps. Back in mid-December Google released an API to sky so you could make mashups with Google Sky data for use with the Google Maps web-based interface. However, it didn't allow you full access to all the layers available in Google Earth's version. According to the post at the Official Google Blog, a code jam winner who became an intern at Google was given the opportunity to develop a full Maps interface for Sky - and the results were released today at: Sky.Google.Com

The new release sports some nice features which lets you view many of the new layers which were introduced to the Google Earth Sky interface back in January. This includes the full-sky microwave layer, samples from the Spitz Infrared space telescope, and much more. Not only that, but there are handy opacity (transparency) sliders which let you compare one frequency with another. Just today I was remarking on the way to do this in a post about a new add-on for the Earth-based Sky which shows a bunch of other wavelengths from NASA's Skyview database (read the bottom of the post under "Advanced tips"). I may have to do a video tutorial explaining how to use this feature. Right now its easier to use the transparency feature in this new Maps-based version. (I do wish there was a name change to differentiate between the Google Sky mode in Google Earth verses the new Google Sky mode for Google maps.) Anyway, I'm glad to see yet another way to view the data. I love astronomy!

Watch the short video Google put up in their post today which gives you a brief glimpse at the features:

Thanks to Mickey Mellen of Digital Earth Blog for actually calling me on the phone to let me know about this new announcement! He knew I would like it.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 06:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Google Sky Wavelength Slider Mashup

In yet another example of the power of KML and Google Earth's powerful developer features, someone has developed a cool new feature which lets you view multiple wavelengths of stellar objects as an animation in the Sky mode. Robert Simpson is a PhD student in Astronomy who posted the new feature at his blog Orbiting Frog. What he did was create a KML file which when you zoom in on an area of the night sky - it fetches imagery from the NASA Skyview database. (Note:- it can take a while to load because it is loading multiple images in different wavelengths of light for that area of the sky from the NASA server.) Robert's application overlays the images and uses the time slider to allow you to view each wavelength as an animation. Currently the time slider just shows a different date for each wavelength (kind of confusing, but he is re-purposing the time slider for a different application). However, the resulting effect is quite amazing! Just drag the time slider in the upper center and you can see the images in different wavelengths. Move to a new area of the sky to load a different set of images (each time you move it has to load a different set).

By the way, Sky also has a number of high resolution images built in to the layers from different observatories showing different wavelengths of light. Some of the images are very high resolution, others are simply amazing alternate views of objects we are used to only seeing in the optical wavelength. If you look at the layers in the lower left and open the Featured Observatories layer folder you will see a list showing:

Hubble Showcase - Optical wavelength
Spitzer Infrared Showcase
GALEX Ultraviolet Showcase
Chandra X-Ray Showcase
WMAP Microwave Sky - Full sky in microwave
IRIS Infrared Sky - Full sky in infrared

Important tips: If you select one of the showcases, you need to look for a corresponding placemark and click on the image in the description bubble to fly to the location. Then make sure the image layer is turned on by selecting "Show this layer". Turn off each layer when you are done so you can return to seeing the original imagery. Advanced tip: This is a little-known trick built in to Google Earth/Sky - If you select the layer on the lower left (it will be highlighted), you can then use the transparency slider above the layer pane to change transparency for the imagery in the given layer. This is another way to compare wavelength imagery in Google Sky, and has a very cool effect. You can also do that with Robert's SkyView overlay to compare imagery.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:51 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 04, 2008

Links: Games, KML, Data, and more

DND Game For Google Earth - Mickey at Google Earth Hacks has been working on a new game that's played entirely within Google Earth. It's a massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG), which he is calling GEMMO. He has announced a public beta now, so you can try it out and join those who are helping give Mickey ideas on further development. The idea is you look around on the Earth and find stores, or monsters to fight. You use the layers folders on the left of GE to execute actions like fighting, buying things at stores, or checking your inventory. You need to register with his forums to get started.
Sky Add-on - Robert Simpson released a file for Google Sky to show astronomical observations by submillimeter camera, SCUBA, on the JCMT telelscope in Hawaii. You see imagery in 450 or 850 microns, and green hexagon placemarks showing other significant observational data in these wavelengths. Check it out . Very nicely done!
Microsoft Bird's Eye Views on Sundials - Steve Lombardi at Microsoft read the GEB post about the sundials collection and shows how you can view the same collection in Virtual Earth (since VE also supports some parts of KML now). Many of the sundials can be viewed with the VE Bird's Eye views which give you high resolution oblique (side) views allowing you to get a better idea of the shapes of the sundials.
Nearby Data Analysis - Barry Hunter has created many useful apps for enhancing your experience with Google Earth (see his list here). With some of the applications he's been logging statistics, and he's created some really interesting heat maps of where people are looking at things in Google Earth (at least the ones who are using his tools).
Virtual Earth Data Update - Microsoft released another monthly update last week adding dozens of new cities around the world with Bird's Eye views, high resolution aerial imagery, and 3D models. The output of free new imagery and 3D models is just amazing.
KML observations - Christopher Schmidt makes some interesting observations about how he sees KML fitting into the GeoWeb as a standard equivalent to HTML.
Handling KML Regions - Richard Treves regularly talks about design ideas for Google Earth visualizations at his blog. He recently posts about the need to handle regionated content so that when you zoom out rather than large numbers of placemarks just disappearing, they are grouped together and an icon showing a magnifying glass is shown. See the next item for an example showing this concept put to use.
Marine Wrecks and Obstructions Database - EarthNC is a site dedicated to sharing marine/boating related data in Google Earth that will be useful to boaters. Virgil has just released a new Google Earth file which shows NOAA Automated Wreck and Obstruction Information System (AWOIS) data. He uses KML regions so as you zoom in you get more information. Zoomed out, you just see each zone of the dataset. Each placemark contains more information describing the wreck from the AWOIS database.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More entries for this category:

WorldWide Telescope vs Google Sky - February 28, 2008
Predict Tonight's Lunar Eclipse with Google Earth - February 20, 2008
Links: Star Viewer, Green Screen, World Hockey, European Pollution, Golden Shadow - January 29, 2008
Links: KML Wrap-up, New Orrery, Zip Scribble, South China Sea - January 23, 2008
Sky Layers Bug - Workaround - January 14, 2008
Google Sky - The Next Generation (Updated) - January 09, 2008
Top 25 Stories of Google Earth 2007 - December 27, 2007
Google Sky with a Maps API - December 16, 2007
Constellation Borders for Sky - December 01, 2007
Links: WSJ Article, Tornado History, Google Sky Exoplanets - November 15, 2007
Planets Layer in Sky Updated - November 02, 2007
Comet Holmes Gets Bright - October 25, 2007
Astronomy Picture-Overlay of the Day in Google Sky - October 10, 2007
Links: Ohio Class Sub, Galactic Delight, Constellation Drawings - October 05, 2007
Beautiful Sky in Google Earth - September 26, 2007
Links: Planet Orbits, SuperOverlay 2.0, GEC 1 million, Google Social Network - September 24, 2007
News Roundup: Poles Overlays, Rocket Garden, Army Topos, Astronomy, Roads - September 20, 2007
Planets Add-on for Google Earth's Sky - September 19, 2007
Supernova Explosion in Google Earth Sky - September 17, 2007
New Update to Google Earth: v4.2.0198 - September 16, 2007
Sky News Roundup: New Horizon, SpaceNavigator, Google plans for Sky - September 12, 2007
Google Earth Sky 3D Animation - Han Solo Escapes - August 31, 2007
Sky Goodies: Hubble Tracker, Sky KML Guide, Horizon Add-on - August 30, 2007
Google Earth 4.2 Roundup - August 27, 2007
Thoughts about Google Sky - August 24, 2007
Censorship in Google Sky? See new Sky Forum - August 23, 2007
More Information on Google Earth 4.2 - August 22, 2007