August 22, 2007
My god…it’s full of stars
Posted Aug. 22, ’07, 8:20 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Software » Updates
I’ve never been very good with constellations: I can find the Big Dipper and Orion’s belt, but beyond that, I don’t know my Ursa Major from my Leo Minor. I blame most of it on growing up not far from a pretty big city, the pink ethereal glow of which all but obliterates anything dimmer than, say, the moon (which I can also usually pick out).
Thanks to the folks at Google, though, I’m well on my way to becoming a superb constellationologist (or, in layman’s terms, “guy who knows something about stars”). The newest version of Google Earth does a 180° turn and lets you survey the celestial spheres above, showing constellations and lots of pretty pictures from NASA, including some spectacular shots from the Hubble telescope.
Feeling starry-eyed yet? Grab the latest version of Google Earth and hit the new Sky button on the toolbar. My version still has a couple of wonky bugs: for example, it appears to still be showing terrestrial landmarks like the Grand Canyon even in sky mode. Whoopsie. Still, it’s a pretty spectacular view, enough to make you wonder if some beings on a planet far far away aren’t launching up their own copy of Qrplyrg Earth and looking out into the vast unknown too.
[via Macworld]
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Seems you really don't know your constellations, as Ursa Major is anothr name for the Big Dipper (the scientific name, in fact)
:P
Technically, wouldn't that be Google Qrplyrg?
Dude... you believe in Aliens? Weird. I guess Apple folk are in fact weird!
So so cool!!!!