Sky Archives

August 26, 2009

New World's Largest Optical Telescope

Back in mid-July the new Gran Telescopio Canarias (Grand Canairies Telescope) was formally inaugurated by King Juan Carlos I of Spain at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands of Spain. You can see an excellent representation of the location, and 3D model of the observatory dome, in Google Earth here :

Gran Telescopip Canarias (Grand Canairies Telescope) - in Google Earth

If this gets you excited about astronomy, you should check out the Sky mode in Google Earth. Check out the GEB archive of many stories about Sky.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

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August 25, 2009

Educational Uses for Google Earth

Nearly every year at this time, I make sure to remind educators - and students - that Google Earth is a great tool for education. It's not just about learning about geography, Google Earth is a platform that lets you put practically any learning into geospatial context. Not only that, but it is a very versatile 3D presentation tool for teaching things, or for students to present their assignments (and maybe get a great grade for such an innovative way of presenting their hard work!).

And, don't forget that Google Earth isn't confined to Earth. Google Earth 5 also has Sky (perfect for astronomy classes), Mars for Google Earth, Ocean for Google Earth, and the brand new Moon for Google Earth. And, you can add on other planets as well - see Jupiter for example.

Another new feature in GE 5 that could help teachers and students is the touring capability. Here are two great examples of what tours can do that might open your eyes for educational applications: Apollo 11 Tour, and a news overview Tour of Afghanistan. Read more about Tours.

Here are some links to some important resources on the subject of Google Earth for education:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:13 AM | Comments (2)

August 4, 2009

Links: Timelapse 3D, Star Tweeting, New Imagery, GeoWeb Glimpse

  • Timelapse 3D - Watch a timelaps movie of a detailed 3D building being made with SketchUp. It took about an hour for the experienced developer at db-3d to complete. Read his blog post. And here is a link to the 3D building shown in the video in the 3DWarehouse.via DigitalUrban

  • Star Tweeting - The maker of EarthTwit, @HusseinNasser (a prolific tweeter and developer) added support for Sky in Google Earth. You can tweet a star now! Read more about EarthTwit.

  • New Imagery - I'm expecting official details, and hopefully a KML file, on the new imagery released on Sunday. Already GEB readers have found many of the locations with new imagery.

  • GeoWeb Glimpse - Over the weekend, @JasonBirch tweeted the location of some videos from GeoWeb (a conference held in Vancouver). I especially enjoyed the Michael T. Jones keynote (part 1 of 7) which revealed some interesting things about Google Earth (more on this later). Also, James Fee has some interesting observations from the conference.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:54 AM | Comments (0)

July 13, 2009

View Details on July 22 Total Solar Eclipse in Google Earth

HeyWhatsThat is a site which has many tools for viewing things from your position on the Earth including things like nearby mountain peaks, or night sky objects, or even solar eclipses. On July 22nd, a total eclipse of the sun will occur in the asia pacific region. The path of totality crosses some highly populated areas in China - like Shanghai. The author of HeyWhatsThat, Michael Kosowsky, wrote to let me know of several tools he has which can help people visualize the event. But, the one that's most cool is the simulation of the event you can watch in the Google Earth plugin. Check out the time animation simulation of the solar eclipse here . Here's a screenshot:

Solar Eclipse Simulation in Google Earth

HeyWhatsThat has also provided a map to view the path of the solar eclipse which will show you whether you can see the eclipse. A way to see the sky view of the event (from your location) with Google Maps using the Cosmic Visibility site. And, you can use his planisphere mode to see the eclipse which uses the Sky mode of Google Earth.

You can also use this excellent eclipse calculator site by Xavier Jubier to view more details on the solar eclipse in Google Earth . In addition to showing the July 22nd path of totality and partial eclipse, you can move your view to any location and, after a brief pause, get a placemark which will show you how long the eclipse will be available for that location (and other details). Xavier also has a version for Google Maps.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:38 AM | Comments (1)

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)

More entries for this category:

  1. News - Sky makes it to Android, Greece Halts Street View - May 13, 2009
  2. Make AR Movies from Google Earth 3D Models - February 18, 2009
  3. Astronomers Use Google Sky to Raise Research Funds - January 12, 2009
  4. Links: Planet Search, Interactive KML, FlightSim, iPhone GPS - October 21, 2008
  5. Links: Walking, Havana, Eclipse, Oil, Follow the Boat - July 23, 2008
  6. Links: Big Dog, Plugins, Smoke, Stonehenge, SketchUp Camp, Kenya - June 13, 2008
  7. Links: New StreetView Stuff, WorldWide Telescope, Yahoo WOE, Dishpointer, GPSAnimator - May 13, 2008
  8. New Layers for Google Earth's Sky Mode - April 17 - April 17, 2008
  9. Brightest Object Ever Observed in Google Sky - March 25, 2008
  10. Google Brings Sky from Google Earth to Maps - March 13, 2008
  11. Links: Games, KML, Data, and more - March 4, 2008
  12. WorldWide Telescope vs Google Sky - February 28, 2008
  13. Predict Tonight's Lunar Eclipse with Google Earth - February 20, 2008
  14. Links: Star Viewer, Green Screen, World Hockey, European Pollution, Golden Shadow - January 29, 2008
  15. Links: KML Wrap-up, New Orrery, Zip Scribble, South China Sea - January 23, 2008
  16. Sky Layers Bug - Workaround - January 14, 2008
  17. Google Sky - The Next Generation (Updated) - January 9, 2008
  18. Top 25 Stories of Google Earth 2007 - December 27, 2007
  19. Google Sky with a Maps API - December 16, 2007
  20. Constellation Borders for Sky - December 1, 2007
  21. Links: WSJ Article, Tornado History, Google Sky Exoplanets - November 15, 2007
  22. Planets Layer in Sky Updated - November 2, 2007
  23. Comet Holmes Gets Bright - October 25, 2007
  24. Astronomy Picture-Overlay of the Day in Google Sky - October 10, 2007
  25. Links: Ohio Class Sub, Galactic Delight, Constellation Drawings - October 5, 2007
  26. Beautiful Sky in Google Earth - September 26, 2007
  27. Links: Planet Orbits, SuperOverlay 2.0, GEC 1 million, Google Social Network - September 24, 2007
  28. News Roundup: Poles Overlays, Rocket Garden, Army Topos, Astronomy, Roads - September 20, 2007
  29. Planets Add-on for Google Earth's Sky - September 19, 2007
  30. Supernova Explosion in Google Earth Sky - September 17, 2007
  31. New Update to Google Earth: v4.2.0198 - September 16, 2007
  32. Sky News Roundup: New Horizon, SpaceNavigator, Google plans for Sky - September 12, 2007
  33. Google Earth Sky 3D Animation - Han Solo Escapes - August 31, 2007
  34. Sky Goodies: Hubble Tracker, Sky KML Guide, Horizon Add-on - August 30, 2007
  35. Google Earth 4.2 Roundup - August 27, 2007
  36. Thoughts about Google Sky - August 24, 2007
  37. Censorship in Google Sky? See new Sky Forum - August 23, 2007
  38. More Information on Google Earth 4.2 - August 22, 2007
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