http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/13/MNC510K233.DTLMicrosoft star gazing
Deborah Gage, Chronicle Staff Writer
(05-12) 19:37 PDT -- Computer users now can fly through the universe,
viewing stars, planets and celestial bodies as an astronomer would,
with Tuesday's introduction of the Worldwide Telescope by Microsoft.
The virtual service combines images and databases from every major
telescope and astronomical organization in the world.
Microsoft says it is providing the resource for free in memory of
Jim Gray, the Microsoft researcher who disappeared last year while
sailing his boat to the Farallon Islands on a trip to scatter his
mother's ashes. The project is an extension of Gray's work.
"I never imagined (the telescope) would be so beautiful," said
Alexander Szalay, an astronomy professor at Johns Hopkins
University who worked with Gray on astronomy projects for more
than a decade.
Gray was an expert in databases, and he came to be accepted as
"a card-carrying member" of the astronomical community for his
work in bringing astronomical data online, Szalay said.
Point your cursor at a constellation, and the telescope will
load all the objects near it and display them across the bottom
of the screen. Pick one, and you'll be taken to it. Zoom in and
out, view it through filters of different wavelengths - an infrared
view, say, or x-ray - and right-click to pull up its name and more
detail. Track the object's location in the sky - its ascension and
declension - at the bottom right corner of your screen.
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Link to the telescope:
http://www.worldwidetelescope.org