New Service Offers Users Opportunities To Gaze Heavenward OnlineRedmond, Washington (eCanadaNow) - Many people have Google Earth on their computers, and use it to scan round the globe for geographic details. But how many people have heard of the World Wide Telescope?
The WWT was began my Microsoft as a service to online web surfers to anticipation of the Year of Astronomy, the 2009 celebration next year in honor of Galileo Galilei. It will be the 400th anniversary of the first crude telescope
Looking up to see the stars has been strictly limited to those who have a clear night, living away from city glare and for those that own a telescope. People in heavily populated or industrial areas, and people in large cities have virtually no opportunities to see the stars clearly because of ambient light pollution.
The new service is one offered by Microsoft that allows a person with a web browser to zoom in close on various different areas in the sky. It uses recorded images on hard drives of large telescopes from all different areas of the earth, and some of the images from space exploration from craft in orbit or speeding through the universe.
This is an incredible amount of images that are available to make up the night sky, stretching almost horizon to horizon. A visitor to the new site can zoon in to any enlargement they desire on a particular area of the night sky.
Microsoft has made the program and web site free to the public, and it’s dedicated to former Microsoft researcher Jim Gray who disappeared at sea in January of 2007 while scattering the funeral ashes of a departed family member.
