Google Sky

I’m sure everybody else already knows about this, but Google Sky is the coolest thing ever. It’s a new(ish) feature of Google Earth that points the camera up instead of down. All the features of Google Earth, but on a sky map. Very cool.

So I just spent two hours looking at stuff. Some cool stuff I saw:

Pi Scorpii:

Click on the pic and it might blow up. I’ll check that after I post. This is the southern eye of the constellation Scorpius (or Scorpio, if you prefer). I just liked the lens flare.

An infrared view of The Orion Nebula:

The Hubble image was pretty cool, but the Spitzer Infrared telescope also has on image (this one) that is way more dramatic. I think it looks like a Scorpion.

The Tarantula Nebula:

Hubble is great. I think this looks more like a little ghost crab than a tarantula, but I’m not in charge of naming stuff.

Anyway. If you haven’t checked out Google Sky yet, do it. Open Google Earth, click “view,” “explore,” ”sky.” Have fun.