Sky Archives

June 3, 2009

Exoplanet Astronomy Star Trek Style

I stumbled upon a cool site that tells you some basic facts about known exoplanets. But, rather than a boring web page, it pretends you are on the bridge of a Star Trek ship using the computer. The underlying planet view comes from a Google Earth plugin using the Sky mode. Yet another fun example of using the GE API and plugin in innovative ways with an educational twist.

Star Trek-style view on exoplanets using Google Sky

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:53 AM | Comments (2)

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May 13, 2009

News - Sky makes it to Android, Greece Halts Street View

  • Sky Goes Android - the Google Earth Sky application, which started out as an inside-out version of Google Earth to view the night sky, was first ported to Google Maps over a year ago. Now, Google has ported the app and data over to the Android mobile platform. Using position sensing and built-in compass feature of Android phones, the Android version of Sky can tell which part of the sky you're pointing at and show the sky map for that area. Sounds cool! I hope to see one next week when I go to California for Where 2.0.

  • Greece Halts Street View - I've had several reports the past few months from excited folks in Greece seeing Google cars shooting Street View. Now their government has decided to halt Street View shooting until they decide whether it is a good thing for their citizens (wow, those guys must be really powerful to stop Google! *snicker*). via Cnet

Posted by FrankTaylor at 6:18 AM | Comments (4)

February 18, 2009

Make AR Movies from Google Earth 3D Models

Augmented Reality (AR) is the mixing of computer generated data and reality in video footage. I received an E-mail from InGlobe Technologies that they have released a new free application which lets you create AR movies using Google Earth 3D Models. They had already previously released an interface for making movies with SketchUp 3D Models, which I have been planning to play with. Now they've gone a step further and let you use the GE plugin to select 3D models and make AR movies with them. Here's a cool example showing what we're talking about:

All you need to do is visit their site ARSights.com, download their application, make a simple printout on your printer (which the video recognizes as the model "base"), select what 3D model you want to use, and use a web cam to make a video.

According to its makers:

ARSights is mainly targeted to:
  • those who are fascinated by 3D and Emerging Technologies,
  • Google Earth fans who are eager to see what the next step with this incredible tool will be
  • those passionate about geography, archaeology, architecture as well as of other topics and wish to approach them in an immersive and completely new way
  • people who are curious about the newest trends in web technologies and gadgets,
  • fans of virtual reality
  • cyberexplorers
  • and a lot of other people.

ARSights is completely free and can be accessed by everyone
with no restrictions.

via DigitalUrban and e-mail from its makers.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:15 AM | Comments (3)

January 12, 2009

Astronomers Use Google Sky to Raise Research Funds

This is a cool way to raise money for your research projects. Borrowing on the old idea of selling stars to make money, the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium (KASC), which is a large international collaboration of scientists, has created the non-profit Pale Blue Dot Project. The idea is that people can peruse their database of stars which might have planets, and pay $10 to adopt that star. Copy the number for the star you select and go to the site to make your donation. The $10 will go directly to help pay for research to have the Kepler satellite search that star for planets. What a brilliant idea!

U2 in Flight in Google Earth

Thanks to GEB reader Mark Petersen for the tip.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:14 AM | Comments (1)

October 21, 2008

Links: Planet Search, Interactive KML, FlightSim, iPhone GPS

  • Planet Search - Recently Google revealed they had added a new feature to the Sky mode of Google Earth (which lets you see the night sky instead of the Earth). The new feature lets you search for our solar system's planets in the "Fly to" search panel. It then flies you to the location and zooms in so you can see the planet. I like the fact it lets you search for "Pluto" too. Also, if you turn on the "Our Solar System" layer, you can use the time slider to show the position of the solar system planets over the course of the next three months. I wrote a post last year about a KML file which lets you view the locations of planets discovered outside our solarsystem - aka "exoplanets".

  • Interactive KML - Google has announced a new tool to help with learning KML. They have an interactive KML sampler which lets you simultaneously view samples of KML with the Earth API plugin. Of course, you can also copy any KML sample text and then paste it right into Google Earth to view them as well. I did notice a few of the KML samples didn't work properly though.

  • FlightSim - A GEB reader named Jasper sent me an E-mail to let me know about his new tool for linking Google Earth to MS Flight Simulator (MSFS). His tool is called GPS60 (because it simulates Garmin's GPS 60 handheld GPS). The application is very versatile. It lets you not only simultaneously view your position in MSFS also in Google Earth, but it also logs your track and even functions as a TCAS (showing positions of other planes in the sim). Check it out here along with documentation of the features, screenshots, and a log of the changes. He has released several updates recently. This isn't the first time a link has been created between these two apps. Back in September of 2005, someone did something similar (no longer available). But, Jasper's version is available now and has some cool features.

  • iPhone GPS - EveryTrail is a popular site for uploading GPS tracks (and geotagged photos) and viewing them in Google Maps/Earth. They sent me an e-mail a while back letting me know they have released an iPhone application for EveryTrail. Their new app lets you record tracks with your iPhone (I assume this is only practical with iPhone 3G with its GPS ability), and you can also take geotagged photos through their app. Here's the link to their iPhone app page. On another note, EveryTrail's Earth API support disappeared when they started supported Maps Flash API, but they plan to get it back in there soon.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:41 AM | Comments (1)

More entries for this category:

  1. Links: Walking, Havana, Eclipse, Oil, Follow the Boat - July 23, 2008
  2. Links: Big Dog, Plugins, Smoke, Stonehenge, SketchUp Camp, Kenya - June 13, 2008
  3. Links: New StreetView Stuff, WorldWide Telescope, Yahoo WOE, Dishpointer, GPSAnimator - May 13, 2008
  4. New Layers for Google Earth's Sky Mode - April 17 - April 17, 2008
  5. Brightest Object Ever Observed in Google Sky - March 25, 2008
  6. Google Brings Sky from Google Earth to Maps - March 13, 2008
  7. Links: Games, KML, Data, and more - March 4, 2008
  8. WorldWide Telescope vs Google Sky - February 28, 2008
  9. Predict Tonight's Lunar Eclipse with Google Earth - February 20, 2008
  10. Links: Star Viewer, Green Screen, World Hockey, European Pollution, Golden Shadow - January 29, 2008
  11. Links: KML Wrap-up, New Orrery, Zip Scribble, South China Sea - January 23, 2008
  12. Sky Layers Bug - Workaround - January 14, 2008
  13. Google Sky - The Next Generation (Updated) - January 9, 2008
  14. Top 25 Stories of Google Earth 2007 - December 27, 2007
  15. Google Sky with a Maps API - December 16, 2007
  16. Constellation Borders for Sky - December 1, 2007
  17. Links: WSJ Article, Tornado History, Google Sky Exoplanets - November 15, 2007
  18. Planets Layer in Sky Updated - November 2, 2007
  19. Comet Holmes Gets Bright - October 25, 2007
  20. Astronomy Picture-Overlay of the Day in Google Sky - October 10, 2007
  21. Links: Ohio Class Sub, Galactic Delight, Constellation Drawings - October 5, 2007
  22. Beautiful Sky in Google Earth - September 26, 2007
  23. Links: Planet Orbits, SuperOverlay 2.0, GEC 1 million, Google Social Network - September 24, 2007
  24. News Roundup: Poles Overlays, Rocket Garden, Army Topos, Astronomy, Roads - September 20, 2007
  25. Planets Add-on for Google Earth's Sky - September 19, 2007
  26. Supernova Explosion in Google Earth Sky - September 17, 2007
  27. New Update to Google Earth: v4.2.0198 - September 16, 2007
  28. Sky News Roundup: New Horizon, SpaceNavigator, Google plans for Sky - September 12, 2007
  29. Google Earth Sky 3D Animation - Han Solo Escapes - August 31, 2007
  30. Sky Goodies: Hubble Tracker, Sky KML Guide, Horizon Add-on - August 30, 2007
  31. Google Earth 4.2 Roundup - August 27, 2007
  32. Thoughts about Google Sky - August 24, 2007
  33. Censorship in Google Sky? See new Sky Forum - August 23, 2007
  34. More Information on Google Earth 4.2 - August 22, 2007
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