Space Fans Unite

by LearnAsYouGrow on September 16, 2009

Admittedly, this is completely off topic. However, I wanted to point out two items that are fun and educational (especially for those intrigued by space):

1.) Stellarium (http://www.stellarium.org/) is “a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope”.

The really cool part is you can select any location, date, and time and modify the Earth’s rotation to control the sky image presented.

FYI – I looked for the Star of Bethlehem, but apparently the program is not sophisticated enough to account for signs from God that occurred over 2000 years ago. :-)

2.) GigaGalaxy Zoom (http://www.gigagalaxyzoom.org) – “Through three giant images, the GIGAGALAXY ZOOM project reveals the full sky as it appears with the unaided eye from one of the darkest deserts on Earth, then zooms in on a rich region of the Milky Way using a hobby telescope, and finally uses the power of a professional telescope to reveal the details of an iconic nebula.”

CNN.com posted an article today that provides some additional detail on how the site was constructed, which states “the image is composed of almost 1,200 photos”.

The site allows you to click your way through the night sky, zoom in on points of interest, and get more detailed information.

I think both are worth a look.

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