Google Sky gives a close-up view of the Universe

Hey fellow space fans, I am sure you will be delighted to hear these news.

I listened to Patrick Moore's comments this morning. His advice must be heeded. He said good stuff about it, but his advivce is still the same as it was decades ago. Go out and learn the sky on your own. Use all the PC stuff (as I do myself) but there really is no substitute for getting out and doing it for yourself. Far more rewarding.

Personally I am a freeware Stellarium fan myself.

wow.. wicked... i thought they would name it google universe.. still to explore it ..

I'm curious to see how this turned out (can't look on my current computer). My husband listened in on one of the teleconferences between the astronomers who provided the data and the guys at Google. That wasn't all that long ago, so it appears they got it together pretty quickly.

Why can't you use it on your computer?

Just installed it last night and had a poke around. It's pretty cool. I had seen shots of the skies before and some deep space pics but being able to zoom in & out and scroll around with the google earth interface is awesome. It really gives you more of an idea of the sheer scale of things and the sheer amount of stuff that is out there, especially given that we can only see a tiny fraction of what's out there. Awesome.

Some are saying that it will make people less likely to go out and stargaze. I'm not so sure about that as it just makes me even more keen to go out and get a telescope and try to see some of the "backyard astronomy" stuff for myself.

did anyone see Spock out there? I also find it incredable.

Tom you have two main scopes seem to me to dominate at the moment, Meade and Celestron. Mine's a Meade.

If you have time (I don't) then buy a more manual scope and learn it slower. I have a BOTO computerised mount and have learned shitloads with it which I'd never have done with a manual. Funnily enough when I buy a bigger scope it will be more manual.

There are three main shops I know which sell scopes. Sauter at Sendlinger Tor is good (I bought my Meade there) and a shopin Grafelfing which sells Meade also. Teleskop Service Ransburg has Celestron stuff. Located out in the country though.

If you are American I am sure you have an astro society to join. If Brit, join the Society for Popular Astronomy which I am in. It caters for beginners like myself and is not too advanced.

Go buy one!

Because when I wrote that yesterday I was at work on an old Sun Sparc workstation.

Cool! This sounds great!
I always wanted a telescope but the likelihood of me putting aside some cash and getting motivated to do it is slim, people who are into astronomy tend to make it sound so difficult and painstaking and everything seems so scary expensive, so I always put it off. Plus it's hard to see the point of buying a telescope when you live in a box apartment in the middle of a city.
I really want to know more about what's up there though.
Think I'll take an astronomy course at least anyway, it does seem rather sad to live all my life in certain oblivion of the largest and most spectacular side of our existence.

Incase anyone does not yet know... Open up the new version of Google Earth (The one with Google Sky included) and press CTRL-ALT-A (Command+Option+A on OSX).

Freaking awesome