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Review: Google Sky

posted by colinr23 on Friday August 24, @12:57PM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the google-the-universe dept.
Virtual Globe
Google Earth Blog has a full review of the new Google Sky features in GE 4.2. From the piece: "Many of us, who think Google Earth has been a wonderful tool for viewing the Earth, have asked Google to use the same tool and techniques to look at other planets and places of the universe. Sky is certainly a wonderful first step. It stays true to Google Earth's formula for success by providing high resolution imagery, intuitive and easy-to-use interface with the mouse, layers with more information, the same kind of tools for sharing and annotating places with others (placemarks, image overlays, network links, etc.), and most importantly it gives an exciting new look at places many people have never viewed with their own eyes. Just like GE opened our eyes and gave us exciting opportunities to explore our planet, this new release is already doing the same thing for the night sky."
Previous posts at GE blog link to stories of rumours of censorship with the discovery of a missing chunk of sky and the discovery of a spaceship.

Related Stories

Google Earth 4.2 (Beta) Available 2 comments [+]
Ogle Earth reports about the release of the Google Earth 4.2 (beta). New features include :
  • Gigapxl photo layer: in the layers sidebar, a new item under Featured Content: Gigapixel photos from the Gigapxl Project
  • Support for KML 2.2
  • Google Sky: Converts the Google 3D viewer into a galaxy like star gazer

Update: 08/22 19:45 GMT by S : Slashdot discuss the new Google Sky feature, with several readers pointing to the open source Stellarium. You can also read the official Google blog entry on the new Google Sky.
PhotoOverlays in the new Google Earth 4.2 1 comment [+]
Even if you don't use Google Earth, you'll probably come across the photos, videos, flash and YouTube overlays in the new Google Earth. Ogle Earth offers explanations and screenshots. The Google Earth Blog also offers a roundup of new features regarding the newest release. From this blog: "The big news of course was the new Sky database which uses Google Earth to let you explore telescope views of the night sky. But, GE 4.2 also contains some pretty cool new features in support of the new KML 2.2 beta specification. In particular, the new photo features and the ability to embed flash applications in placemark descriptions (sadly, only on Windows though)."
Application Domains: HeyWhatsThat.com creates first Earth-Sky mashup [+]
OgleEarth reports "Michael Kosowsky, of HeyWhatsThat.com — a site that generates horizons for specific locations from DEM data — has emailed friends of the site to announce compatibility with Google Sky.".

Here is the executive summary as reported on their site :
  • At http://www.heywhatsthat.com generate a new panorama or view an existing one.
  • Hit the new "at night" button just below the "View in Google Earth by day" button.
  • Google Earth opens, switches to sky mode, and overlays the celestial sphere with the horizon, visible summits and an azimuth-altitude grid for that location at the current time.
New Features in KML 2.2 [+]
With GE 4.2, so came KML 2.2. In addition to previously mentioned new features in KML, (like photo overlays), Google lat-long comments on some other new features including ExtendedData for balloon templating and custom-typed data in KML files, feature linking and sky data.

Jason at Random Nodes gives the low-down on the ExtendedData tag.
Google News: Sky and Transit Updated, WarViews, Swiss Alps Comparison and More [+]
Here's the most interesting Google related geonews I found for January so far. Google significantly updated Google Sky (a little more on the GEB), with many new layers and associated data. Still from the Official Google blog, some news an discussion about Google Transit. Not to miss is the impressive comparison of a real flight and a Google Earth flight in the Swiss Alps. Amongst the other GE news, there's the WarViews animated conflict geodata (via OE) and surface-to-air missile sites and range dataset for GE. The 3D Route Builder which uses GE which reached version 1.0. Here's a 3D-mouse working with GE. And finally, a few navigation shortcuts for Google Earth 4. See also the numerous related stories below.
Industry: Google Earth Lawsuit Over Sky layer 4 comments [+]
CNET is currently running an article about this new development. From their summary : "A former Google contractor is suing the company for allegedly stealing from him the idea for the Sky layer in Google Earth.

The lawsuit filed this week in federal district court in Atlanta seeks punitive damages of $25 million from Google.

Jonathan Cobb claims in his suit that he disclosed the idea for a Google Sky idea in internal e-mail discussion groups when he worked at Google as a contractor beginning in 2006.

The Google Earth Sky layer, when it launched in August 2007, was similar in interface and functionality to what he had conceptualized, Cobb claims. "

For a more detailed report, please visit the CNET article link above.
February Microsoft Geonews: Big VE Update, WWT, ESRI and more 1 comment [+]
We warned our readers about some geonews being published at a slower rate than usual but claimed that you won't miss anything major. Here's Microsoft geonews wrap-up for February. Let's start with the big data update announced this week with new birds eye and 3D cities in Virtual Earth, including significant additions in Portugal, Italy, and Austria. There was also a data update in January detailed here. Here's more on the upcoming World Wide Telescope (WWT), dubbed by many as Microsoft's answer to Google Sky (previously this month). Here's a demonstration of the video recording function over new VE 3D buildings in Paris. Here's a video including Jack Dangermond on the ESRI-Microsoft partnership. There's also two important customers migrating to the Virtual Earth platform: YellowBook and Windermere. There's also a way to show Google My Maps data in Virtual Earth (via OE). APB links to an analysis of the local component of the possible Microsoft-Yahoo! merger. Several other Microsoft-related geonews were shared recently.
Industry: Google Sky For Web [+]
The Ogle Earth blog has a detailed review of this new Google site. From their summary : "The web-browser version of Google Sky has gone live. It’s announced on the official Google Blog, where we learn that it is the the labor of love of Google’s Latin America Code Jam finalist and winter intern Diego Gavinowich, and on on Google Lat-Long Blog, where we find a run-down of the features."

For a detailed list of the features and critiques as well, please visit the Ogle Earth blog for more detail.
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