What can I use Google Sky for?

February 18, 2008 1:12 PM

What are some examples of questions that you could use Google Sky to answer, and how would you do so?
posted by unknowncommand to computers & internet (3 comments total)

"Where the $*#(&*!!! is Orion?"

Google Sky is a very nice star chart. You can use it as a reference tool to help you find galaxies, constellations, planets, satellites, etc...

"What are some interesting things going on in the night sky tonight?"

Consider using the VOeventnet mashup that shows you recent celestial events with Google Sky.

If you're interested in having a handy navigator for grabbing some Hubble data or just getting, blown away, y'know, you can also just browse...
posted by onalark at 2:21 PM on February 18, 2008

Thanks. There's no way to match Sky locations with Earth locations, right? Like, if I wanted to know which countries were under Scorpius right now?

It seems really great for having your mind blown, I agree. Maybe I don't have a lot of questions about space, and so it's not really geared toward me. I'm kind of puzzled why I would use it instead of other online sky maps or even Wikipedia.
posted by unknowncommand at 3:18 PM on February 18, 2008

Astronomy picture of the day. Maybe you could look up each day's picture on Google Sky.
posted by proj08 at 3:52 PM on February 18, 2008