Tag: STARS

Oh my gosh, Google is full of stars! The popular icons that started as a way to mark messages in Gmail have spread into Google Reader and Google News, and now they're finally shooting into Google's search results! With Google offering the ability to mark your favorite sites and have them come up first in related searches, I think your browser's bookmark feature may have just become obsolete. ...

When it comes to Time Wasters, my favorites are non-stressful puzzlers. Something to make my brain work up a sweat, but not so much so that it's going to have me swearing a blue streak. Starlight is exactly that kind of diversion. Here's how it works: you're presented a field of stars and connecting lines. Move your mouse around the play area and the field rotates - when you do it just right, ...

Forget about going to a planetarium, Google Earth has expanded its view and is starting to focus on the stars. Sky in Google Earth has launched. This new addition to Earth enables viewers to check out different areas in the universe, from distant galaxies light years away, to constellations and planets. You must download the new version of Google Earth to get the features, then you're on your way ...

If you've been annoyed that Google Maps only works for locations on the Earth, Moon and Mars, you might want to check out Wikisky. It's sort of like Google Maps for the sky. What you get is a click and drag interface for checking out constellations and individual stars. If you zoom in all the way, you'll often find yourself staring at a black space. But unlike real space, if you scream, your ...

One of these days I expect Google to come out with "Google Galaxy" or some similar outward-looking companion Google Earth. But we don't need to wait for Google, as there's some good free offerings out there for people wanting to stargaze from the comfort of their computer. Among them is Stellarium, an open source, multi-platform desktop planetarium. Stellarium features over 120,000 catalogued ...