Re: Web-based Google Sky

On Fri, 9 May 2008 17:10:49 +0200 (CEST), Andrew Smallshaw
<andrews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I've only looked at Google Sky briefly but I didn't really find it
to be that good.

I agree. Google Earth makes great sense as a Web app, because the
database is both very large and very dynamic. This would be difficult
for most people to maintain locally, so it's worth the performance hit
to run this application over the Web.

On the other hand, viewing the sky requires much less data- an amount
most people can store locally (and most of the data is in the public
domain, unlike satellite imagery). It's much nicer to use an app
accessing local data, and there are a number to choose from.

The promise of something like Google Sky really lies in the possibility
of integrating much richer data. For instance, it would be nice to look
at a section of sky and view it in any wavelength range, or even "see"
non-EM data like gravity maps. As wide field, fast survey cameras start
coming on line, there's also the possibility of seeing truly current
data.

Of course, apps like Google Sky are great for casual users, who are not
likely to load a dedicated astronomy application on their computer. But
that doesn't generally include amateur astronomers.

From what I've seen of Microsoft's new WorldWide Telescope project, it
will pretty much blow away Google Sky in terms of the richness of its
data.
_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
.

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