The big blue ball

December 20, 2011 5:13 PM

Can I get a fairly accurate, real time view of Earth constantly on my desktop?

My ideal would be a constantly updating HD image showing the Earth centered on New York City, the whole hemisphere they see on the Enterprise when they are orbit. Failing that could I fake one? What I would really like is

• more or less accurate could patterns
• the /Terminator_%28solar%29">terminator, accurate
• lights in the parts of the earth that are dark

Some noodling/programing is OK. I know there are ways to customize the desktop in elaborate ways, but I dont know anything about them

posted by shothotbot to Technology (8 answers total)

Best answer: How about Xplanet? It's sort of a follow-on to Xearth, which already did something very much like this, but has been updated more recently than the Windows port of Xearth has. It even supports cloud maps!
posted by FishBike at 5:22 PM on December 20, 2011 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: Holy cow Xplanet is so cool! I knew someone smarter than me had figured this out.
posted by shothotbot at 6:01 PM on December 20, 2011

I like this one. Various settings to change the image to a globe, etc.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 6:45 PM on December 20, 2011

You will have to fake this, "real time" satellite imagery is just a thing in movies.
posted by troika at 6:52 PM on December 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Actually the geostationary orbit weather satellites do take 'full disk' images of one hemisphere of the Earth all the time. Not much to see at night however. Try here.
posted by zomg at 8:44 PM on December 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

I like EarthDesk.
posted by feloniousmonk at 12:18 AM on December 21, 2011

EarthDesk came to mind for me as well.
posted by Chutzler at 8:38 PM on December 21, 2011

Doesn't answer the question but providing this image was the mission for Al Gore's satellite.
posted by Rash at 9:12 AM on December 22, 2011