Proving that Google really is everywhere, you can now stargaze using Google Earth. Who needs a telescope when this newly added tool enables users to view and navigate through photographs of 100 million stars and 200 million galaxies.

Just hit the “Switch between Sky and Earth” button on your Google Earth toolbar to get a map of the night sky from your current location. The interface and navigation are similar to that of standard Google Earth steering, including layer selection. The layers for Sky include Constellations, Backyard Astronomy, Hubble Showcase, The Moon, The Planets, User’s Guide to Galaxies and Life of a Star.

The Sky layers are composed of over 1 million stunning celestial photographs from various scientific and academic sources including the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Digital Sky Survey Consortium, CalTech’s Palomar Observatory, the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre, and the Anglo-Australian Observatory.

Lior Ron, Google Product Manager states, “We’re excited to provide users with rich astronomical imagery and enhanced content that enables them to both learn about what they’re seeing above and tell their own stories. By working with some of the industry’s leading experts, we’ve been able to transform Google Earth into a virtual telescope.”

To access the Sky on Google Earth, you need to download the newest version. Go to http://earth.google.com to get stargazing.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 8:29 am under Google.

Read more entries by Ema Kwiatkowski.
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