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Microsoft Launches WorldWide Telescope

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 13, @03:26PM
from the godspeed-jim-gray dept.
Microsoft Space
esocid writes "WorldWide Telescope, developed by Microsoft's research arm, knits together images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and others. Windows users (only) can browse through the galaxy on their own or take guided tours of different outer-space destinations developed by astronomers and academics. The application allows viewing from different wavelengths such as X-ray, visible light, and hydrogen-alpha radiation. Business Week has a review and some background on the project, which has been in development for years. Google Sky beat them to the punch but Business Week opines that WWT's interface is superior."

Related Stories

[+] Google Sky Now Available Through Your Browser 83 comments
Ars Technica brings word that Google Sky, formerly only available as an extension of the Google Earth software, is now accessible through your web browser. The interface of Google Sky is quite similar to that of Google Maps, complete with search and alternate views by spectrum. The story also mentions (and more importantly, links) ten of the more interesting sights. We discussed Google Sky's initial release last year. Quoting: "Visible light only shows us a small picture of the entire universe; non-visible spectra such as ultraviolet (UV), infrared and X-ray hold a whole other world of information. Here is where Google Sky becomes very cool. There are three more sections that highlight fantastic images from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the GALEX Evolution Explorer (UV), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (IR). What makes these very cool is that under each selected body there is a slider that will change the displayed image back and forth between the visible and invisible spectrum."
Firehose:Microsoft Launches WorldWide Telescope by esocid (946821)
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  • but (Score:5, Funny)

    by electrosoccertux (874415) on Tuesday May 13, @03:28PM (#23394572)
    But can it see why kids love cinnamon toast crunch?

  • Web 2.0? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Thyamine (531612) <thyamine&ofdragons,com> on Tuesday May 13, @03:37PM (#23394684) Homepage Journal
    The description says it's a "Web 2.0 visualization software environment". Shouldn't that be running in a web browser then? What's with having to download and install the application itself? Being on my Mac, I can't (probably wouldn't anyway) try it out to see what happens, but that description seems a bit misleading.

    • Re:Web 2.0? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dancindan84 (1056246) on Tuesday May 13, @03:57PM (#23394986)
      Welcome to the misuse of buzzwords. Every time someone uses "Web portal", "Web 2.0", "Enterprise", "Synergy" without knowing the meaning an angels wings fall off, killing a kitten. A buzzword get picked up by the media, which then drives PR to use it as often as possible to describe their product whether it fits or not, which is then reported on by the media and the vicious cycle continues until the next buzzword hits.

      Most people would consider google sky a "Web 2.0" app. It's an interactive web based application that seamlessly runs in your browser. WWT is much more similar to google earth. It requires downloading a separate application that runs autonomously from your browser and just happens to use the net for data.

  • Telescope or Printer (Score:3, Interesting)

    by shogun (657) <shogunNO@SPAMshafted.com.au> on Tuesday May 13, @03:37PM (#23394686) Homepage
    Ok this is weird, if I run the self extracting installer it starts to install some Xerox printer drivers instead of the WWT. I think it gets its temp files mixed with the drivers that I installed a while ago, it appears to install fine if i manually extract somewhere else and run the setup.exe...

    • Re:Telescope or Printer (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Jugalator (259273) on Tuesday May 13, @04:03PM (#23395062) Journal
      You probably have a setup.exe for your printer drivers in either %WINDIR% or %TEMP% (or elsewhere in the path, but the Windows directory is sometimes incorrectly used as a temp directory because apps blindly extract to "current directory" which may end up being that one, and otherwise, the temp dir use to be used)

      I've had this happen before myself, and don't really know why it happens, but believe that for some reason it can't overwrite the setup.exe it tries to replace, or the installer extracting to its temporary directory is even stupid enough to not *try* to overwrite an existing setup.exe. *shrug*

  • I just played with both right now (Score:5, Interesting)

    by greymond (539980) on Tuesday May 13, @03:38PM (#23394720) Homepage Journal
    MS's may be better but it required me to download and install their app where as Google Sky is just like Google Maps and runs in my web browser. I don't know if I'd actually compare these two products considering it's web app verse a 20mg install.

    That said I personally lost interest with both about 5 minutes after playing with them. I'm not really a solar-system-space nut, but I'm sure those that are will love either.

  • Thing they found out.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Daimanta (1140543) on Tuesday May 13, @03:41PM (#23394768)
    The sky is blue. However, this might have something to do with the OS running this system.

  • BBC review (Score:5, Informative)

    by kernowyon (1257174) on Tuesday May 13, @03:46PM (#23394822) Journal
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7397811.stm [bbc.co.uk] which also mentions that you CAN run the Worldwide Telescope on a Mac.... as long as you run Windows on your Mac!
    They quote Bill Gates who said he was hoping the project would -

    "inspire young people to explore astronomy and science"

    Presumably also requiring Windows is a mere co-incidence!
    At least the Beeb article has the decency to mention the Open Source project Stellarium http://sourceforge.net/projects/stellarium/ [sourceforge.net]

  • WWT and unexpected extras (Score:5, Insightful)

    by E-Lad (1262) on Tuesday May 13, @03:54PM (#23394928) Homepage
    I never would have expected it, especially in a MS product, but the folks who put the WWT app together also blessed it with ASCOM [ascom-standards.org] capabilities, so one may use the WWT app to drive a computerized telescope mount (aka, a "goto mount").

    While there are [bisque.com] other [starrynightstore.com] ASCOM-enabled apps that astronomers have been using for years to point their optics (and manage dome robotics, and focusers, and cameras), I have to say that the basic mount control in WWT is a pretty cool tip of the hat towards to astronomy community in practical terms.

  • Intrest in astronomy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by loudmax (243935) on Tuesday May 13, @04:05PM (#23395082)
    Since this product isn't available for my operating system, I can't check it our for myself, but I do hope it encourages interest in astronomy. There are valid reasons to bash Microsoft (the OOXML debacle [noooxml.org], for example). Putting out a free-as-in-beer science project for their customers only isn't one of them. If some of Microsoft's customers get to learn more about the sky, that's a good thing. I hope they enjoy it.

    • "WWT's interface is better"... but only on windows... So for the schools, third-world countries, etc. we've read about who are adopting Linux... Microsoft pretends they don't exist?
      There, fixed it for ya.
      • It ain't free if you have to buy a computer to use it. It ain't free if you have to pay for internet service to use it. It ain't free if you have to buy food to get the energy to walk to the library to use it.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by MightyYar (622222)
          I think you missed his point. You can buy a computer from anyone, from Dell to your local computer shop to Walmart. You can get internet service from any number of DSL, cable, dialup, or wireless ISPs.

          You buy Windows from Microsoft. End of story.

          Google get

        • Re:Good to see (Score:5, Funny)

          by avandesande (143899) on Tuesday May 13, @05:27PM (#23396176) Journal
          Ms could cure AIDS and release the patent to the public domain and people like you would still bitch about it.

    • Re:Not nearly that good... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bigstrat2003 (1058574) * on Tuesday May 13, @04:42PM (#23395542)
      Yeah, it runs on 90% (hell, I'll be generous to you, 80%) of PCs out there. That's soooooooooo useless.

    • Re:Not nearly that good... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Liquidrage (640463) on Tuesday May 13, @04:47PM (#23395636)
      I don't really know if it's actually overstated at this point. I would be surprised if a lot of astronomers didn't push their data to it. That's one of the nice features of the software. Look, the twin kecks aren't controlled by Starry Night. But this can totally replace starry night for me it looks like, and as a repository I would absoltely love to have access to real time data and images from *professionals*.

        • Re:Not nearly that good... (Score:4, Informative)

          by Liquidrage (640463) on Tuesday May 13, @06:36PM (#23396976)
          Yes, it's ASCOM compliant so it does allow mount control. As far as "really" as good. My initial impression is yes. I like it better. Easier to use. Tons of information. The interface is pretty smooth. I went after Eta Carinae first thing. Search went easy. I had several different images to flip through on the "zoomed in" detail view. Several options for research. Even the wiki link for that page. And, "drumroll" when I went to the wiki page for it, it respected FF as my default browser and used that for the browser. So far my initial impressions are very high. But I won't know for sure if it'll replace Starry Night for me until I get a viewing session outside with it.

      • Re:Good (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Liquidrage (640463) on Tuesday May 13, @05:07PM (#23395924)
        Take your "EVERY OS SHOULD BE FREE" tangent elsewhere.

        You obviously don't do astronomy. I have single EP's that cost me $500. The worm gear in my mount costs more then XP. A simple piece of machined aluminum tubing that does nothing but serve as an adapter for me costs almsot as much as XP does. Hell, Starry Night that this will most likely replace for me costs more then XP does. Astronomy aint cheep. In software, sure there are some freebies. I've used Cartes du Ciel for a while but it is no where near as good as Starry Nights.

        If this were MAC software would you be on some tangent about the cost of the OS and the hardware? I doubt it. You're just a confused fool on some tangent how they missed the target market when you're clearly not the target market.

        I'm looking at this as potentially (will have to see) replacing a very expensive piece of software for me. Your complaints just aint valid.

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