Google has just announced google earth 4.2 and new to this version is the Skies. Several Sky layers are listed on the left-hand side, including Constellations, Backyard Astronomy, Hubble Showcase, The Moon, The Planets, User’s Guide to Galaxies and Life of a Star. The Sky layers are composed of over 1 million photographs from various scientific and academic sources.
Another new feature in Google Earth is the addition of super-high resolution photo content, which you can see by adding the layer Primary Database -> Featured Content -> Gigapxl Photos. Unlike Google Street View, these photos however are only available for a few select places (like buildings), so there’s not a lot of random fun stuff to be found.
So go download your free copy, install and hit “Switch between sky and earth”. This is absolutely fantastic and serves as a great resource for research and education. Thanks Google….You guys ROCK!!!
One response to “Google Earth does the Skies….”
Don’t miss the excellent NASA World Wind, which has some fantastic sky support — and has had it for longer than Google Earth. Google has actually riled the NASA fans, because the data they’re using is public domain, but unlike the NASA project, they don’t allow it to be freely used.
Anyway, if you like this stuff, well worth having both!