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.

Start screen
The start screen for the World Wide Telescope (with tabs hidden) CREDIT: Microsofts World Wide Telescope
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.

WMAP data
Changing the sky imagery to WMAP (Cosmic Microwave Background) CREDIT: Microsofts World Wide Telescope
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.

WMAP data
WMAP data zoomed out showing projection distortion CREDIT: Microsofts World Wide Telescope
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.

NVSS data
The NRAOs VLA Sky Survey data showing Cassiopeia A CREDIT: Microsofts World Wide Telescope
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.

Simbad search
Search with the Simbad name resolver CREDIT: Microsofts World Wide Telescope


NGC 884
NGC 884 CREDIT: Microsofts World Wide Telescope
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.

Venus
Venus CREDIT: Microsofts World Wide Telescope
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

Tags: | |
Posted in astro blog by Stuart on Tuesday 13th May 2008 (18:03 BST) | 13 Comments | Permalink

Comments: World Wide Telescope First Impressions

But, despite billing it as such on the website, there isn't a Mac version...

Posted by Alasdair Allan on Tuesday 13th May 2008 (20:21 UTC)

Another thing that would be nice is if it supported something other than Windows. I run a Windows-free shop here.

Posted by Stephen on Wednesday 14th May 2008 (01:21 UTC)

Looks quite interesting. Too bad it doesn't work on Linux, but I'll try to install it on my daughter's PC tonight. Meanwhile it looks like my only choices are still on-line GoogleSky and WikiSky

Posted by Fred on Wednesday 14th May 2008 (15:43 UTC)

It is bad that they aren't supporting any platform except Windows although realistically I wasn't expecting that given that this is Microsoft.

Fred, you might want to check out the excellent Stellarium. It works on Linux, Macs and Windows.

Posted by Stuart on Wednesday 14th May 2008 (15:49 UTC)

Yes, Stellarium is definitely my choice as planetarium. I was just thinking about all sky surveys view and Stellarium doesn't have it (yet, I hope)

Posted by Fred on Wednesday 14th May 2008 (16:25 UTC)

Fred, the Virgo (huge) plugin is starting to do that for Stellarium by including access to the European Southern Observatory's archives. I've been wanting Stellarium to go multi-wavelength for a couple of years now.

Posted by Stuart on Wednesday 14th May 2008 (21:44 UTC)

I hook my lap top up to my telescope via usb cable. Does it have an option to interface with a telescope?

Posted by billy on Friday 16th May 2008 (00:33 UTC)

David, your comment seems totally unconnected to the subject of the post and this blog. It also includes profanity and personal attacks.

As the comment goes against the ground rules so comprehensively, I've deleted it. This is not censorship of your view and you are entitled to it and I'm not stopping you expounding it on your own blog. However, I don't want the type of behaviour you demonstrated in that comment here.

Posted by Stuart on Monday 26th May 2008 (13:59 UTC)

salam

Posted by mojtaba on Tuesday 30th Jun 2009 (08:37 UTC)

hi all i am running wwt on my laptop it controls my telescope mount with the ascom drivers. it is one of the best programs i have used, it needs some work but it is beter the most. the price is right. some things i would like to see added.

1 auto guiding

2 camera control

3 flexable data base

a. the ability to log nightly views

b. add notes on the stars nebulas and galixys viewed

c. 3rd party add ons

4 etc..

there are alot of programs out there that do the same thing and all of them have there good points and bad points. i use 3 diferent ones simultaneously under ascom myself. if they took the best of all of them and put it all together in wwt it would be way to cool.

Posted by gman on Saturday 08th Aug 2009 (01:30 UTC)

Ei, I just wanna asked if i will be charged for downloading and using this world wide telescope... im just concern with my bills...

Posted by jen on Tuesday 29th Mar 2011 (06:46 UTC)

WWT Pas de traduction en français du logiciel Free ,Russe,Espagne,Chinois,?

Posted by SWITT on Sunday 25th Sep 2011 (17:12 UTC)

WWT Pas de traduction en français du logiciel Free ,Russe,Espagne,Chinois,?

Posted by SWITT on Sunday 25th Sep 2011 (17:13 UTC)

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