Discover the Wonders of the Night Sky with WorldWide Telescope

[Daniel Y.]

So what do you guys think of this software? Do you use it often? Like it? Hate it? By some strange chance haven't heard of it or downloaded it?

Here's a link to the website:

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

I was astronomically challenged before using the software, but it's been really helped me familiarize myself with the night sky.

 

[Evo]

I was going to download it but it's HUGE. Looked nice though.

 

[turbo]

It's OK, but you get less overhead and more flexibility if you will use other resources with non-unified interfaces. Like the Canadian Astronomy Data Center for example. You can also do batch queries. http://www2.cadc-ccda.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/cadc/

In our M51-type galaxy association project, we relied heavily on IRSA, with its DSS, SDSS, and 2MASS front-ends. DSS was the most useful, and comparative observation between blue, red, and infrared bands helped us identify structure in the galaxies. Active star-forming regions tend to look more luminous in blue, as do HII galaxies, and the older materials tend to be luminous in the red bands. Also, we used the DSS plate scans in reverse grayscale, since that makes faint structure stand out more readily than positive images.
http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/applications/FinderChart/

 

[robertm]

I use it almost every day. A very satisfactory resources for no cost... it is indeed big though.

 

[Daniel Y.]

I was going to download it but it's HUGE. Looked nice though.

... it is indeed big though.

Huh!? It's 20 MB? I regularly download 2 GB+ stuff. How can you guys consider the download to be big?

 

[binzing]

What do you download that is 2Gb+? Jesus, that's huge...

 

[turbo]

Huh!? It's 20 MB? I regularly download 2 GB+ stuff. How can you guys consider the download to be big?

When you connect, the overhead is pretty impressive. If you connect to IRSA, the connections may not be really fast, but they are pretty reliable.