Astronomy Blog

World Wide Telescope First Impressions

Update (14/5/2008): Be sure to also check out Dave P's and Ian Musgrave's reviews.

This morning I got news that Microsoft had finally released a "Spring Beta" edition of their World Wide Telescope. It is heralded as the Microsoft version of Google Sky and some have even been in tears when describing it. Does it live up to the hype? Here is my quick review after only a little bit of time to play with it.

The download and install was actually very painless with only the need to install Div X as a minor annoyance. It starts up fairly quickly and the interface is actually quite nice to look at although it could do with hiding the Windows blue title bar. Anyway, here is what it looks like.

At the top you can see the menu tabs. Initially these have further options beneath them but I put them on auto-hide to free up so screen real-estate. With the top and bottom information areas this probably doesn't make for a brilliant use of space on a wide-screen monitor. Anyway, you can see that we start at Right Ascension and Declination of zero. The orange lines show the constellation boundary of the currently selected constellation (i.e. where the screen centre is). The green line shows the ecliptic (plane of the solar system). As I've said the interface is fairly nice to look at although can be a little clunky to use.

Let's get into the more exciting parts of WWT namely the ability to show sky surveys from the entire electromagnetic spectrum. This is a feature I've long been wanting in Stellarium or Google Sky (Rob did hack the time slider to do that) and it is nice to see that WWT has been very comprehensive. You can choose from most of the major sky surveys that exist from radio wavelengths up to gamma rays. I'll illustrate it with a WMAP view of the cosmic microwave background.

At this point I'll show the distortions that get introduced if you zoom out too much. This is true of all planetarium software but for projection geeks it might be interesting to see.

Now, let's switch to the NRAO's VLA Sky Survey which is well known to radio astronomers. The view below shows one of the brightest (the Sun is the brightest) radio objects in the sky - Cassiopeia A. The crazy pattern around the central object is actually due to the diffraction pattern of the telescopes and are called sidelobes. They are of the same origin as rings and spikes seen in optical telescopes due to secondary reflectors and support legs. It is quite nice to see Cass A in radio in the context of the whole sky.

Another nice feature is the search tool. This lets you search the name resolver in Simbad. Type in something like "NGC 884" and it will find the position and take you there. The only complaint I have about moving between objects is that it zooms out fully, then pans, then zooms back in. It would be nice if they did what Google Earth does and pan and zoom simultaneously.



Another feature which is very much like NASA's World Wind and lately Google Earth is the ability to zoom, pan and rotate around other planets. As an example, here is Venus.

There are other features such as overlays of HST, Chandra and Spitzer images too but I haven't had chance to explore those yet. You can also connect to your own telescope using ASCOM so there is the possibility to control your observations from WWT too. In summary:

Pros

• Looks quite nice
• Multi-wavelength all sky surveys
• FITS download of images from the DSS
• Simbad name resolver search
• ASCOM control

Cons

• When changing object from a zoomed in view it zooms fully out, moves position and then zooms in. It would be nice to smoothly combine the two like in Google Earth/Sky.
• I think I've seen some strange projection effects looking at 2MASS data.
• You can't get a full screen view without the menu bar and the top option tabs
• (from Alasdair in the comments) The Mac version isn't really a Mac version but a Windows version running under boot camp.

Bugs and improvements I'd like to see

• I get flickering of overlay boxes on my Windows XP machine.
• There is a possibility of fading between wavelength views (like the option in the web-based Google Sky) but I can't get it to work.
• When viewing the Sun it would be nice if it displayed a live image from SOHO (or STEREO).
• Update (14/5/2008): In Ian's review he says that there are problems with display when setting your location in the southern hemisphere

Mercury in the beam

One of the nice things about my job is working in international collaborations. Most of the time we work by email, Skype and the internet but with people spread across about 130 degrees of longitude that can be awkward. Sometimes you just need to meet up and work face-to-face. So on Tuesday - a day that felt like the start of summer - I travelled to Paris for a three day meeting.

As is becoming a tradition on my blog, I wanted to get an astronomical shot with a famous landmark whilst I had the opportunity. I've previously snapped Saturn from Piazza San Marco (St Mark's square) and Venus next to the Colloseum so it seemed fitting to get another of the planets with a famous Parisian landmark.

I took this image from my hotel room window on 7th May when Mercury and the Moon were quite close. The quality of my shot isn't brilliant, as I only had my cheap digital camera withme, but it does just pick up Mercury. In this particular shot Mercury is fairly easy to find. Start at the Eiffel Tower (La Tour Eiffel) over to the right-hand side of the image. These days it looks rather like a lighthouse with a rotating searchlight beam. If you follow the beam past the foreground office block you will see a little blob (brightened for the small version of the image so it can be seen). That little blob is Mercury and up to the top left is a slightly over-exposed crescent Moon.

To see hundreds of stunning images of the night sky pictured above famous landmarks all over the world, visit The World At Night website.

Trouble with UNITs

It is nice when somewhere you know gets referenced in popular fiction. I broke into a smile when Jodrell Bank was mentioned by the Colonel from UNIT in this week's episode of Doctor Who - The Poison Sky. Apparently Jodrell Bank had detected a signal 5000 miles above the Earth. I have to say that I am slightly disappointed that UNIT don't use SI units.

In real life Jodrell Bank is a radio quiet zone - it listens rather than transmits - but it does occasionally get referenced in British sci-fi detecting (or failing to detect) aliens. Back in real life, searches for aliens have been carried out at Jodrell Bank for the SETI Institute. That is one of the reasons Jodrell Bank has been referred to as a "real-life Torchwood Institute".

Now, I must go work out how to get perl talking to my sonic screwdriver.

Trouble at the top

In my email this morning was a message of support for UK astronomy from a concerned citizen. Perhaps they had heard an interview on the Today Programme with Professor Brian Cox or seen the news coverage on the BBC, in the Times, in the Guardian and elsewhere. What made this particular Wednesday special is that the Parliamentary Select Committee of MPs that were investigating the STFC funding crisis have just released their report. I haven't had chance to read it myself yet but I hear that it makes interesting reading and is not a whitewash.

Of course, we should remember that Professor Keith Mason probably never wanted the crisis he is presiding over; the problem arises from the merger of PPARC and CCLRC and the subsequent funding settlement that the newly created (and unable to defend itself) STFC received from the Government.

"… in merging two Research Councils, one research community has been saddled with the debt of another, despite assurances from the Government that STFC would be formed without any legacy issues." - Select Committee Report

Of course, the management of the crisis and lack of communication within STFC and the rest of the scientific community is the responsibility of the STFC management. As always, check out Paul Crowther's renowned wesite for the full, gory details about the crisis.

I hope the situation improves soon and everyone can get back to doing some real science.

Sky At Night Magazine Podcast

One of the most popular UK astronomy monthly magazines is the BBC's Sky At Night Magazine (the other is Astronomy Now). The magazine has now launched a new podcast. The first episode includes interviews that Will made in Belfast during the UK National Astronomy Meeting. The free podcast can be found on iTunes, on the Astronomy Media Player and as an RSS feed for those that use other podcatching software.