World Wide Telescope

[Saito]

I thought as you are a group of pretty enlightened folks you might be interested in this. I had to pinch myself twice when I realised it was from Microsoft and it was free product, but it look drop-dead amazing.

I've long been a keen amateur astronomer (I look up at the sky and squint, I don't have a telescope or anything fancy), and I'm fascinated by the vastness of space and what it contains. This sort of program inspires and excites me, not only form my own POV, but because I can see it being genuinely inspiring to everyone who uses it, imagine what a curious 12 year old kid will make of it?

Once in a while something pops up that makes everything else look like pith, I mean when you can make stuff like this who the hell wants to spend time trying to zombify their friends on Facebook or making crappy half-rate homepages on MySpace? I don't care about anything else that's happened in the world of computers this month, hell even this year. This is why I maintain a glimmer of hope in the world of technology, because occasionally people do something *truly* amazing with it. They aren't interested in money or advertising potential, they just want to share something incredible.

Anyway, here's a demo of the thing in action (props to Robert Scoble):

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/224

It's been slated as for 'Spring 2008' so I'm expecting a Beta in late April/May time. I am not holding my usual wand of cutting cynicism out for this Microsoft product, as I think they'll ship it whatever, and it'll be great even with bugs.

[THYREN]

Looks nice for sure, especially for an alpha version!

However, if you can't wait until it's available, you can already use Google Sky

[Jeff Georgeson]

I agree--stuff like this is really cool! Reminds me of when I was a kid and dreamt that I could go outside and see the planets like they were in astronomy books.

[Saito]

I go outside and look up at the sky at night and still wonder at it's beauty.

[THYREN]

I go outside and look up at the sky at night and still wonder at it's beauty.

Lucky you! I was able to do that when I lived in tiny Victoria, BC, but now I live in Montreal, I can only see the most brilliant stars

Japanese students from the Tokyo area told me once that it`s basically impossible for them to see any star at all

[Saito]

I'm profoundly fortunate. I live out in the English countryside in a small village, and away from the road, so when all our outside lights are off you can see everything the heavens behold on a clear night. It doesn't mater if it's freezing cold outside, I can stand there for hours just looking at it. It's fascinating.

This is the problem though, kids in urban areas can't look at it out of the window, because of lights and pollution, so we have to bring it to them some other way. I think WWT looks like a great way to do that. I might sound like a teary-eyed old romantic but I hate the idea that kids take the world around them for granted. In the context of GiTS, it's one of the things that makes us human, the ability to stare up at the heavens and wonder.

[Jeni Nielsen]

I go outside and look up at the sky at night and still wonder at it's beauty.

Lucky you! I was able to do that when I lived in tiny Victoria, BC, but now I live in Montreal, I can only see the most brilliant stars

Japanese students from the Tokyo area told me once that it`s basically impossible for them to see any star at all

I live in New York so er
what's a star?

But I have been out to Santa Fe and I could stare at the stars out there for hours. The Southwest also has some of the most beautiful clouds. For some reason I feel like I could stare at a cloudy sky for days.

[Saito]

I remember once during my summer school exams laying in the park near the school for an hour just watching the clouds in the sky moving and merging and dividing and swirling. It's amazing. Nature is just beautiful.