GoogleSky

A few days ago we were looking for a good star/sky catalog, and a few days ago Google released an amazing update to GoogleEarth. So, wow, cool, all that.

You can now use their app to view the night sky, as you'd see it, from wherever you are. Also, just like in the rest of GoogleEarth, you can zooooooommmm.

This is looking like an amazing potential venue for the LSST star data Google has promised to archive, which will be coming in... 2013? (so far away) at a rate of 30TB a night.

Some applications with similar offerings are mentioned in this article, but I'd check out Stellarium (open-source, cross-platform). I haven't fully explored it, but it has some fun overlays, and from what I can see, it all sits on your computer, which would be preferable to the GoogleEarth/Sky, should you be star-gazing in an area where the wifi is a bit spotty.

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http://earth.google.com/sky/
Google Lat Long (GoogleEarth and Maps blog)
another youtube spot
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It is alarming (and wonderful) to think about how disparate the childhoods of the coming generations are and will be from every other generation that has come before. Seriously, check out the zoom on a nebula or something. Crazy.