Blogging Sueblimely

This is totally off topic but I had to share the cause of my excitement. As I came home last night from a delightful evening out, dining with my two sons at a cheap and cheerful local Greek restaurant, my mood was high and the sky was dark and clear. I wished, once more, that I knew more about the stars and constellations in the southern sky above.

Imagine how pleased I was to discover that Google Earth now incorporates ‘Sky’ which allows an astronaut’s view of the earth. Not only can you view stars, constellations, galaxies, planets and the Earth’s moons but you can zoom right down to street level. Street level earth that is - Google has yet to discover life on another planet. Imagine if they developed the Sky equivalent of ‘Street View’ – we would be able to try and spot the little green men ourselves?

To access the new feature you must download the new version of Google Earth - Download

To use the feature you ‘Switch to Sky’ from the View menu in Google Earth. Once this is loaded you will find yourself looking at the sky above the location you were viewing in normal view. You can then navigate around earth, zooming in and out as you normally do. In the new layers panel that appears you have extra view options:

More info in the User Guide

Google says the service is “a playground for learning about space” so if you will excuse me I going back there to have a swing on a star. I wonder if the kiosk sells MilkyWay’s? (a kind of chocolate bar in case you live in a place where they are not sold)