Webware

The Web client for WorldWide Telescope ports most of the sky-gazing tool to your browser.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Last year, Microsoft introduced its answer to Google Earth's Sky mode, Stellarium, and other celestial mapping programs with WorldWide Telescope, and it's now making it available via any browser that's been bolstered by Silverlight. The basic features of the downloadable program have been ported to the Web, though some of the higher-end renderings didn't make the cut.

As in the desktop version, users can whip around the galaxy using their mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out, and hold down the left mouse button to drag the sky from one position to another.

Users will continue to get access to hundreds of terabytes of data on the sky, Earth, and other planets, though for 3D viewing, you'll have to hit up the full program. Thumbnail previews show off relevant and nearby astronomical bodies of interest, and one of the strongest features from the desktop--the tours made by both astronomers and amateurs--are also available here.

The time line is also available, so that you can see what the constellations looked like as far back as 2,000 years ago, and there's a virtual observatory cone search and registry look-up, as well as SIMBAD (Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data) search.

The Web version of WordWide Telescope is limited to a geocentric perspective, though Microsoft says it has plans to include multiple points-of-view in future feature upgrades.

You probably have heard about Microsoft Research's WorldWide Telescope referred to as "the thing that made Robert Scoble cry". Today, the world finally gets to check out what all the buzz is about.

WorldWide Telescope is a desktop application for Windows which does exactly what you would think. It essentially turns your computer into a telescope. You can choose from a variety of options from roaming the universe freely, to guided tours of various celestial features. You can join communities of stargazers and also connect your own telescope to your computer and control it with this application. Another option is to change your source of imagery to gain a different perspective.

This application really shines in the guided tours which let you sit back and observe while the application zooms and pans around the stars with someone narrating in the background. The narrators range from an 8 year old boy talking about The Ring Nebula to a Harvard astrophysicist talking about dust.

(Credit: Microsoft WorldWide Telescope)

WorldWide Telescope is an extremely feature packed and complex application. The complexity of this application might turn some off because it certainly seems to be overwhelming at first. I'm glad that Microsoft decided to keep this wealth of features and options in the application, despite the potential usability problems. Having so many different controls really gives people the ability to delve deeper into specific areas of interest.

The imagery in WorldWide Telescope is absolutely breathtaking and it's a truly unique feeling to fly around in space and take a look at what's around us. I have only scratched the surface of what this application is capable of and I'm already impressed. There is a whole lot to see here and the volume and quality of content and guided tours will only improve as time goes on.

REDMOND, Wash.--When Microsoft releases its WorldWide Telescope this spring, the program will be a Windows-only download.

Much of the astronomical community, however, uses Macs and other Unix-based hardware. So, when principal developer Jonathan Fay shows off the program, he often uses a MacBook Pro. The telescope program itself, though, is running in Windows using the Mac's dual-boot Boot Camp software.

Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope software offers several different ways to look at the heavens, including the Hydrogen Alpha view.

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)

Other Mac users will have to use similar technology. The program can theoretically run using virtualization programs, such as VMware's Fusion or Parallels, but 3D applications often throw those programs for a loop.

Principal researcher Curtis Wong used a WinTel laptop running Vista on Monday night to demonstrate the program to journalists at a reception kicking off TechFest, Microsoft's internal science fair. Microsoft first demoed an early version of the software at last year's TechFest, while its current incarnation was shown last week at the TED conference in Monterey, Calif.

Given his penchant for Cupertino-designed hardware, I wondered why Fay was less than enthusiastic about prospects for a native Mac version. He said the type of programming needed to make the software a reality can be done vastly faster using Microsoft's .Net and C# programming tools.

To make it truly cross-platform, he said, "I'd basically be looking at three to four years of development." Plus, he quipped, "It doesn't hurt if a few people buy Windows."

Although Wong and Fay have done the actual software development largely over the last 18 months, the genesis of the project goes back to conversations Wong had years ago with now-missing Microsoft researcher Jim Gray, to whom Wong paid tribute.

"It's dedicated to Jim," he said, noting that Microsoft is making the software available free via a not-for-profit Web site.

Wong demonstrated a number of different ways to view the universe, including X-ray, hydrogen alpha and traditional imaging. The different views offer starkly different looks at the universe.

The images, as previously noted, are stitched together from a variety of sources including the Hubble and other Earth and space-based telescopes. Think of it as a "terapixel panorama," Fay and Wong said of the finished product.

Contrary to some reports, however, the program does not use Microsoft's PhotoSynth technology, but rather a different stitching technology and an internally developed projection method known as Toast.