Hitchhikers Guide to Google Sky

Stardate 61105.2, planet Earth. I've booted up my computer and loaded Google Sky and ready to trek across the galaxy.

Today Google released a beta version of Google Earth (4.2.0180.1134 (beta))that includes a Google Sky feature that allows you to get up-close and personal with over 100 million galaxies and 200 million stars.

As Google did with Google Earth, Google Sky is made up of stitched photographs of the heavens pieced together to make a one giant navigate-able database of the universe.

To get started you have to download the most recent version of Google Earth software. Once you've done that launch the application and go to the View drop down menu and select the "Switch to Sky" item. Now you're ready to blast off.

Instead of navigating a sphere from the top down, you are the center of the universe and navigating a spherical universe from the position of the earth. In this sense you can't navigate freely in space - like a spaceship might. Instead it more closely resembles a planetarium on your PC that allows you to zoom in and out from inside an inverted sphere.

You start out seeing the constellations Pegasus, Libra, Virgo, and much more. From here you can zoom in to see points of interest the same way you do in Google Earth.

If you see something of interest simply click on it and Google Sky offers pop-up information and photographs on everything from black holes, galaxies, planets, and stars. Pop-up content comes from third parties. For example pictures featured in Hubble Showcases come directly from NASA?s Hubble Space Telescope. Other high-resolution imagery comes from the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Digital Sky Survey Consortium, and others.

If you know where you're going Google Sky search allows you to type in galactic destinations like the Ursa Major, Sagittarius, or the black hole NGC 5128. Otherwise you can wander aimlessly - it's quite fun.

However, to really get the most out of Google Sky you will want to use the Google Sky Layers feature. These layers are content that has been created for Google Sky.

Google Sky Layers such as Backyard Astronomy feature some of the most interesting, well-known objects that you can observe with the naked eye, a pair of binoculars, or a modest telescope. Other layers include The Planets, The Moon, and Constellations. By activating these layers all you have to do is click on an heavenly body of interest and you'll receive background information on the object.

Missing, or perhaps a feature I can't find, is a feature that allows me to punch in the date, time, and my position on Earth that would allow me to see what the night sky would look like from my back yard.

Google Sky is off to a good start. My fingers are crossed Google and third parties will add more content to Google Sky. For example, currently now all you can do is view a picture of the red planet. Google Sky has now whet my appetite for further exploring the Martian landscape via the help of Google Sky. It would be great if Google could integrate content from of NASA?s Mars Polar Lander.

UPDATE: Thanks to an astute reader I'm told you can use Google Maps to scour Mars - albeit not Google Earth. To view the Red Planet's surface using Google Maps type http://www.google.com/mars. Who knew?

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