Sky Archives
April 30, 2012
UFO Sightings in Google Earth
For centuries, humans have been witnessing UFOs in the sky. What those objects actually were may never be known, but the vast quantity of reported sightings in the last 150 years is quite amazing.
Created back in 2005, this UFO Sightings KMZ file
still seems to be the most comprehensive of its kind. The map was created by Poly9, who was acquired by Apple a few years ago and no one seems to have updated the file since then. However, the file contains thousands of sightings each with details on what was seen:
UFOmaps.com contains somewhat more recent information and uses a nice Google Maps interface to display it, but nothing past 2010 is in there.
The National UFO Reporting Center is very up to date, and their data was used in the original KMZ file, but they don't seem to have any kind of geospatial solution in place to view the data.
There have also been a number of UFO sightings in Google Street View. Some are listed on UFOsearchonline.com and you can find a few others by searching for "UFO" in the Google Earth Hacks Street View database.
Whether you believe in true UFO sightings or not, Google Earth is a great platform from which to view the patterns of sightings and explore what people may or may not have seen.
Posted by mickmel at 7:16 AM
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February 1, 2011
Satellites around the earth
A few years ago, Frank showed you a great visualization from AGI that shows the real-time positions for over 13,000 satellites around the Earth. That post, along with the page he built to show off the visualization using the Google Earth plug-in, have been some of our most popular pages ever, having been viewed nearly 200,000 times!
With that in mind, we thought we'd show you all of the great ways to view this data so that new users that may have missed it the first time around can see it as well. The Google Earth files below will automatically update every 30 seconds with the current positions of every satellite, so you can just sit back and watch.
There are three great ways to view these satellites:
1 - The official KML file
2 - Via the Google Earth Plug-in
3 - Watching the video below
As BoingBoing pointed out last year, these 13,000 satellites "represent an infinitesimal drop in the overall volume of their orbits", but it's still an amazing display. Thanks to AGI for providing such a great tool to view these satellites.
Posted by mickmel at 8:24 AM
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December 20, 2010
Simulating the upcoming lunar eclipse
Early tomorrow morning, December 21, there will be a total lunar eclipse. It will be completely visible to those in North America (assuming clear skies, of course) and people in Europe will be able to see the beginning of it.
For the solar eclipse this past summer, we showed you the great tool that was created by Michael at HeyWhatsThat.com.
He's back again with a similar tool to determine the best time to view the lunar eclipse from your location. Check out the tool here to see when you should step outside to view the eclipse.
If you're not in a location that can view the eclipse, or if cloud cover obscures your view, NASA has a live feed that you can tune into to see the eclipse as it happens. UPDATE: Or watch it live in Google Earth using Slooh.
Posted by mickmel at 7:05 AM
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October 20, 2010
Comet Hartley 2 will approach Earth over the next few days; view it in Google Earth
Starting today, the Comet Hartley 2 will be making its closest approach to Earth -- if you consider 19 million kilometers to be "close". Up here in the Northern Hemisphere, it will be visible to the naked eye if you're in a dark location in a moonless sky. Otherwise, binoculars and/or a telescope will be needed.
Of course, another way to view it is with Google Earth! Google has teamed up with the folks at Slooh.com to deliver live images directly into the "Sky" mode of Google Earth.
Go access the images, switch to "Sky" mode in Google earth, and then dig into the "Current Sky Events" layer and choose "Slooh Space Camera", as seen here:
The result with give you something like this:
We discussed Comet Holmes on here a few years ago, but this new layer is certainly the most in-depth we've ever seen for a comet.
Have you had a chance to see the comet yet? Do you plan to in the next few days? Tell us about it in the comments.
Posted by mickmel at 8:32 AM
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September 21, 2010
10 Google Earth myths busted
Rich over at Google Earth Design has just published an entry titled "10 Myth Busting Facts about Google Earth".
Over the years, we've covered most of these myths on Google Earth Blog, but it's always good to re-post items like this to help out new users. Be sure to check out our Google Earth Basics page for a variety of tutorials.
Here Rich's list of facts that many users aren't aware of:
1 -- You can make your own map in GEarth. Use the "Add" menu at the top of your screen to add placemarks, lines, and other items to the map.
2 -- Google Earth isn't just satellite images and roads. Use the "layers" on the side of your screen to find a lot more data to use; photos, Wikipedia entries, 3D buildings and much more.
3 -- Any map you make in Google Earth is not visible to anyone else unless you publish it. While you can certainly use the items in #1 to create your own maps, those maps are private unless you share them with others via email, or by posting on a site like the Google Earth Community or Google Earth Hacks.
4 -- You can publish your own map without going through Google. This is very similar to #3, but it's from the opposite angle. Not only can you create your own maps, but Google doesn't have to get involved at all. Create a map, share it, post it, email it, whatever. There's no gatekeeper to go through to be able to share your maps.
5 -- The satellite data in Google Earth is historic, i.e. its not imagery taken today. This is one of the most common myths: Google Earth imagery is live, and you can watch people in real-time. In fact, it's not even close. Frank wrote an excellent post about this last year, and it's worth reading to gain an understanding about the process of moving imagery from satellites to your computer.
6 -- Google does not censor satellite imagery. While there are a few cases where they've censored imagery in the past (like around the White House), it's far less common than most people think. The fact that companies like CNN still thinks it's real-time (and actively censored) certainly doesn't help...
7 -- You can use Google Earth offline. You can browse an area of the map, let Google Earth store that imagery on your system, and then you can use it when you're not connected to the internet. [details]
8 -- You can tilt the view to see mountains in 3D. This is less of a myth than it once was, but it's always worth mentioning; you can tilt your view to see 3D mountains and buildings. You can read this article for help getting started with it.
9 -- Google Earth is not a security threat. Pointing back to items #5 and #6 on this list, Google Earth isn't the security threat that people think it might be. Having access to aerial imagery isn't a big deal for people that want it, and the fact that it's months (or years) old makes it much less helpful. If Google Earth were to cease to exist, you could still get similar imagery from Google Maps, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, Mapquest and various others. Google Earth just has the best interface. :)
10 -- You can use Google Earth to explore other Planets, the Sky and History. Recent versions of Google Earth have added lots of great things to Google Earth, including Mars, the moon, the night sky and historical imagery. These are all wonderful tools that are easy to access, but a lot of users don't even realize that they're there.
Be sure to check out his full list to see his comments on each item.
What other misconceptions about Google Earth do you encounter from others? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Posted by mickmel at 8:30 AM
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More entries for this category:
- Watch this weekend's solar eclipse in Google Earth - July 9, 2010
- Hubble Tour for Google Earth - April 26, 2010
- New World's Largest Optical Telescope - August 26, 2009
- Educational Uses for Google Earth - August 25, 2009
- Links: Timelapse 3D, Star Tweeting, New Imagery, GeoWeb Glimpse - August 4, 2009
- View Details on July 22 Total Solar Eclipse in Google Earth - July 13, 2009
- Exoplanet Astronomy Star Trek Style - June 3, 2009
- News - Sky makes it to Android, Greece Halts Street View - May 13, 2009
- Make AR Movies from Google Earth 3D Models - February 18, 2009
- Astronomers Use Google Sky to Raise Research Funds - January 12, 2009
- Links: Planet Search, Interactive KML, FlightSim, iPhone GPS - October 21, 2008
- Links: Walking, Havana, Eclipse, Oil, Follow the Boat - July 23, 2008
- Links: Big Dog, Plugins, Smoke, Stonehenge, SketchUp Camp, Kenya - June 13, 2008
- Links: New StreetView Stuff, WorldWide Telescope, Yahoo WOE, Dishpointer, GPSAnimator - May 13, 2008
- New Layers for Google Earth's Sky Mode - April 17 - April 17, 2008
- Brightest Object Ever Observed in Google Sky - March 25, 2008
- Google Brings Sky from Google Earth to Maps - March 13, 2008
- Links: Games, KML, Data, and more - March 4, 2008
- 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 9, 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 1, 2007
- Links: WSJ Article, Tornado History, Google Sky Exoplanets - November 15, 2007
- Planets Layer in Sky Updated - November 2, 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 5, 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