Fun with Google Sky
Traveling far enough to the stars was never an easy task. To help you explore the universe, some astronomers have teamed up and have tried to give you a new and a closest look of the sky. With the help of Google earth you can explore as well as browse the universe, find the positions of the different constellations and the planets in the sky. You can search for the position of your favorite planet or star or check out their podcasts through the Google Sky.
You can explore the universe in a number of ways using the Google Sky. Initially, you can see the visible universe that is a mosaic of pictures from the digitized sky survey, Sloan digital sky survey and the Hubble space telescope. There are different thumbnail images towards the bottom of the display like the galaxies, favorite stars, constellations, planets, views of the universe; highlights form the Hubble telescope and upcoming astronomical events. You just need to select the image you want to get complete info of the same.
Some other items are also available in the Google Sky that includes Infrared, microwave and historical. You can get an infrared view of the sky from the infrared astronomical satellite. You can alter the transparency of this layer by moving the slide bar for combining the infrared and the optical images. The microwave view displays the universe as it was in the ancient times that is, 380,000 years before. The historical view shows the constellations in its classical form.
Theses images seen in the Google Sky are similar to that of the Sky in the Google Earth. With the help of Google Sky, you can see the planets in the sky even on the same night. You just need to type the name of the planet you want to see in the search box provided. Google Sky will take you to the location where it is actually found in the sky. Or you can also click on the icon named “our solar system” on the page. Thumbnails of the solar system will appear and then by clicking on any of these, you will see the current placement of that planet in the sky.
Google Sky also enables you to find your favorite star in the sky. You should know the name of the star that you are searching for. You simply have to enter the name of your favorite star in the search box like Messier 85 or Pleiades. You don’t need to worry about misspellings or incorrect spellings. Even if you spell it wrong, Google Sky will do the spell check for you. You can also find a particular position in the sky by entering the co-ordinates like Right Declination or Ascension in the search box.
Google Sky provides you with a feature wherein you can create your own view of the sky. You can embed your view of the sky on any webpage and then modify this view to illustrate your favorite aspect of astronomy.
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