World Wide Telescope....Have you heard of this?

[TruthWillSetUFree]

Similar to Google Earth but for the universe!

Check it out

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx

[elsinorelore]

Cool, but I have to wonder how much is airbrushed!!! Just being sarcastic...but what a cool thing......

[TruthWillSetUFree]

Yes I thought so too! I wondered how much memory downloading the program would be but if it is in real time imagine watching solar and lunar eclipses!

I was thinking about getting a new telescope but the good ones are so expensive plus using this, I can sit right in my living room watching the stars!


Thanks for posting back elsinorlore!

In Love & Light

[Dantheman62]

It looks pretty cool, here's the FAQ's.................

Q. What is WorldWide Telescope?

A. The WorldWide Telescope is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground- and space-based telescopes to enable seamless, guided explorations of the universe. WorldWide Telescope, created with Microsoft’s high-performance Visual Experience Engine, enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience.
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Q. What is the WorldWide Telescope Web Client Preview?

A. The WorldWide Telescope Web Client uses Microsoft Silverlight to provide a rich browser-based version of WorldWide Telescope that that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground- and space-based telescopes to enable seamless, guided explorations of the universe from within a web browser. This version contains a subset of the features that the Windows Client offers. For details on the differences between the two versions, click here.
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Q. What are some of the most compelling features of WorldWide Telescope?

A. WorldWide Telescope is an observatory on your desktop, allowing you to see the sky in a way you have never seen it before through individual exploration; multiwavelength views; stars and planets within context to each other; the ability to zoom in and out; and the capability to create, search and view guided tours of the universe. You can view the entire solar system in 3-D with light and shadows created from the sun. You also can watch planets orbit around the sun, and moons orbit around planets. The Visual Experience Engine delivers seamless panning and zooming around the night sky. WorldWide Telescope delivers seamless integration of science-relevant information including multiwavelength, multiple-telescope distributed image and data sets, and one-click contextual access to distributed Web information and data sources. From http://www.worldwidetelescope.org, you can easily share videos of the tours with friends by e-mailing them a link to your favorite tours to view on a PC or Mac.
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Q. Does WorldWide Telescope provide real-time data?

A. WorldWide Telescope shows you where items are in space today but all the images are from different ground- and space-based telescopes, and that content is from varying times in the past.
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Q. What are the system requirements for running WorldWide Telescope?
A.
WorldWide Telescope minimum system requirements (For PC):

Microsoft® XP SP2 (minimum), Windows® Vista® (recommended)
PC with Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2 gigahertz (GHz) or faster, recommended
1 gigabyte (GB) of RAM; 2 GB RAM recommended
3D accelerated card with 128 megabytes (MB) RAM; discrete graphics card with dedicated 256-MB VRAM recommended for higher performance
1 GB of available hard disk space; 10 GB recommended for off-line features and higher performance browsing
XGA (1024 x 768) or higher resolution monitor
Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing and scrolling device
Microsoft® DirectX® version 9.0c and .NET Framework 2.0
Required for some features; Internet connection at 56 Kbps or higher through either an Internet service provider (ISP) or a network. Internet access might require a separate fee to an ISP; local or long-distance telephone charges might also apply
Estimated download time 1 hour (56Kb), 10 minutes (DSL 512Kb)

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Q. Is WorldWide Telescope available in other languages

A. Yes, WorldWide Telescope offers a fully functioning simplified Chinese version.

Q. What is the Microsoft Visual Experience Engine?

A. The Microsoft Visual Experience Engine is the technology that enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky, blending terabytes of images, data and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience.
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Q. Who are some of your partners with WorldWide Telescope?

A. We are working with a variety of partners in the academic, educational and scientific communities to make WorldWide Telescope a success. For details please see http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/p...sCommunity.pdf.
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Q. What will WorldWide Telescope cost?

A. Microsoft Research is dedicating WorldWide Telescope to the memory of Jim Gray and is releasing WorldWide Telescope as a free resource to the astronomy and education communities with the hope that it will inspire and empower people to explore and understand the universe as never before.
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Q.When did Microsoft first starting looking at the sky?

A. For 16 years, Microsoft has invested, and will continue to invest, in long-term, broad-based research through Microsoft Research. WorldWide Telescope is built on work that started with Jim Gray’s work on SkyServer and his contributions to Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
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Q. Is this an extension of Jim Gray’s work?

A. Yes.