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WorldWide Telescope blasts off

The Associated Press

Latest comment posted at 6:53 PM EDT 14/05/08

Microsoft launches Web-based program for checking out the universe ...Read the full article

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  1. Maria Loi from vancouver, Canada writes: thank you, Microsoft, i am learning to use that website!
  2. B to the A to the R to the T from the left coast, Canada writes: I appreciate Microsofts effort but isn't there a feature in Google Earth that lets you view the night sky, including images of nebulas, etc?
  3. D B from Canada writes: Kudos to Microsoft!
  4. Geriatric Personage from St. Stephen, Canada writes: Typical MS, text doesn't display correctly, menu's unreadable. Google at least works and is usable.
  5. Albin Forone from Canada writes: An AP Wire story, off an MS press release, but a little discussion of how it compares with the astronomy feature on Google Earth would be appreciated - how many general interest astronomy downloads does Albin Bag O'Donuts want?
  6. i. ignatius from Mount Pleasant, Canada writes: attempt #3 at this ...

    Google Sky starts off promising, but it appears to attempt to represent the sky (a sphere) using Mercator projection ... it flattens the sphere into a rectangle. Just navigate north to Ursa Minor and you'll see that it's drawn much larger than Ursa Major and its distorted, and Polaris appears to be at the "top of the map" ... sort of like how Greenland appears larger than Australia on a Mercator projection map.

    WWT is a much more polished product, and looks promising. But Stellarium (www.stellarium.org) is the best at the moment. Open source, astounding and intuitive user interface ... awesome.

    Hopefully it wakes up a whole new generation of kids to science and astronomy.
  7. Milburn McLean from Toronto, Canada writes: I downloaded the program and during the install it wanted to completely remove Norton from my computer. Once again MS is trying to extend the reach of their controlling tentacles. I'd suggest people just look up at the sky and enjoy the view.
  8. David Harrison from Canada writes: I. Ignatius, Stellarium is terrific, and so is Celestia. But WWT is a different type of product, since it is displaying terabytes of real imagery rather than providing a planetarium simulation. The down side, of course, is that it doesn't simulate the sky relative to the earth, nor does it do animations of the sky's motion.

    Anyone wanting free astronomy software would probably want all three installed, as they are all different but complementary. All have their place.
  9. Craig Cooper from Toronto, writes: ABSOLUTELY AWESOME.
  10. Craig Cooper from Toronto, writes: Milburn McLean: You ought to remove Norton yourself. I used it for years and it was great but now all Norton does is turn machines into slugs. Switched over to McAfee and things run fine. I don't know what Norton did to their products but they are like bricks in the trunk of the car that is your computer. I'm not the only one; do a search and you will see.
  11. David Harrison from Canada writes: Craig, better still, get AVG or AVAST. They performs better than McAfee, and there are free versions.

    But yeah - I wouldn't blame MS if Norton hiccuped. Norton has a bad reputation these days. For the record, WWT installed just fine here at work with CA antivirus running.
  12. michael luger from montreal, Canada writes: with a total of 483 people who 'qualify' as having reached space, a staggering 0.000000724 % of 6,667,679,300 humans thus far, i feel it's safe for me to say... this is about as good as it's going to get for my space travelling.

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