I'm sure many of you may have already seen or heard of this, but if you have "Google Earth", even just the free download version. You can go to the "View" menu & down at the bottom the is a option to "Switch To Sky".

This turns it around and allows you to explore the galaxy using help from Hubble & other powerful telescopes!!
It's freaking amazing!! You can zoom way the hell out across the universe!! Pick any star & start zooming & you eventually end up looking at it as if it were in our solar system...kind of...
Some of them end up being other stars, similar to our Sun, in the center of another solar system, with planets orbiting around them.
Some of them end up being other entire galaxy's, just so far away that they look like a single point of light, until you zoom out there to look at it closer & it begins to unfold into an entire spiral galaxy. Revealing true perfection!!
Unfortunately, the farther away it is, the more pixilated the image becomes, but it's not that bad, you still see some incredible detail!!
Also, I think the paid version focuses up the image for you much more. Although I don't know that for a fact, it's just something a friend told me.

There are options to show & identify the planets & constellations. You can even show the movement of our solar system, from the point of view of the earth, over the coarse of a set amount of days. Then, set it in motion, showing the change in the sky over the selected amount of days/time. It is quite amazing to see it happen upon request!!

There are also options (under the "Featured Observatories"..."Layer" ) to view it all through a number of interesting light filters!
Like infrared, microwave, X-Ray & ultra-violet.
These allow you see the spectrum's of light that our eyes don't just naturally see.
The infrared filter for instance, lets you instead see the energy given off by some of the objects out there.

(Check this out!!: Turn on the "IRAS Infrared Sky", locate the constellation "LEO" & check out the weird energy signature next to the farthest leg to the right. Now turn off the "IRAS Infrared Sky" filter. Where did it go? Zoom in & check this system out without the filter on. You'll probably need to use the filter to get way in there accurately though. Look at the size of it, compared to the huge amount of enegry coming off of it)
Supposedly, the big "Gas Giant" in the middle & the three "planets" orbiting it, make up "Planet X" (enter creepy therimin music:lol.
The planetary system that is Supposedly part of our solar system. But on an elliptical orbit (oval shaped), that only brings it back through our solar system every xxx-thousand years, causing the polar shifts & other general cataclysmic stuff.
This group of planets is supposedly moving closer & closer to our solar system & is supposedly scheduled to get here, around 2012. Bringing with it, the Neberu. The extra-terrestrials/gods that the ancient Sumerian texts say civilized man way back in the day.
Supposedly!!
(BTW, the "Ancient Sumerian's", would have been those human's/monkey's being civilized by the Neberu... First hand reports? Who knows, but they did have knowledge of this system of planets way back then!! Where as modern astrologers only learned of it a short time ago. Just since Hubble has been in use. Wild!!)
I really don't know how much of the fire & brimstone, beginning & end of the world stuff I completely buy.
But whatever that it is, out there beyond Leo's leg, it's unique & interesting none the less.
And farki'n powerful for it's size!!!

Ether way, Google Sky is a really cool tool for exploring the universe & at least attempting to get a grip on the gigantic size of it & how tiny of a part we truly are in this place.
I think anyone who believes that humans, on earth, are the only form of intelligent life in the universe, really does not understand the vast size of it.
And they should all spend at least a few hours monkeying around with Google Sky to start getting an idea of how unrealistic that is.

If you've never checked it out, here is a link to the free download:
Google Earth/Sky
You'll get lost for hours exploring the universe & scouring the globe, checking out places you've been & places you want to be!!
Amazing!!!

Can't wait to see Google-Hyperspace!!

WS

I wonder if i'll be able to see the pleiadian star system......i'm gonna flip my google earth to outward projection. Thanx WS

Man....this is pretty damn cool.

Certainly!!

I'm glad I could turn someone else on to it!!

Cool story;
I was baby sitting my 4-1/2yr old niece a few weeks back, I opened up Google Earth & zoomed into my sister's back yard. I started pointing things out to my niece until she started to recognize that it was her backyard on the computer screen.
Then I zoomed out to where we could see the whole block - then the neighborhood - Then all the way over to my house - then up to where we could see how far away it was to get to grandma's house in another state & she commented on now knowing why we have to take a plane to get there!!
Once she was recognizing & understanding what she was seeing each time, I would zoom out a little more, until she could see the whole Earth.

This blew her little mind like I've never seen with anyone, or anywhere before!!!
Remember, she is only 4-1/2 years old!!! But she understood what she was seeing & played around the globe, in amazement for over an hour!!!
She would check one thing out & then an idea of something else she wanted to see would pop into her head & she would ask me to show her where it was.
Like her school for instance, after she was recognizing her block, she asked me to show her where her school was. Then she used her finger to trace the path she walks from her house, to the school a few blocks away!!
It was so inspiring to watch the little 4yr old lightbulb come on each time she would finaly recognize what she was seeing & that leading to more questions & other stuff she wanted to check out!!

I also began to show her the sky, starting with a view like we can see outside her house, then zooming way out to see what those stars really are!!
She was digging on that too, but didn't understand it as much.
Plus after about 5 minutes, she told me that it all looked the same...I guess to a 4 year old it probably does.

Thought I'd share that with you guy's too, it really opened her eyes to the larger world that is around her.
She has asked me questions about it a few times since then, such a cool little girl!!

WS

I'll have to check it out, been meaning too.

Also, Planet X/Nibiru supposedly comes around every 3600 years, and some say is due back in 2012. If this is the case, we'll know about it pretty soon, most likely by the end of the year. www.yowusa.com has some of the most comprehensive explorations of this possibility for those who may be interested.

Thanks for the reminder on googlesky! Gonna go check it out now

Where is it in relation to one of the constellations? Is that the one in Orion's belt?


WS

Haha, thank you soo much for showing me this.

My night is dedicated to this now.

Right On, glad I put this here!!

WS

WS - This is bad ass! I didn't know GE had this feature. I found that the "Helix Nebula" is part of my constellation (Aquarius), and that it's "often photographed by amateur astronomers for its vivid colors and eerie resemblance to a giant eye"! How cool is that?! I tried to copy it to this post, but it wouldn't let me copy the image.

:idea: On a slightly different note - this idea might be a bit New Age-ish, but it might be kinda cool to take a poll of peoples astrological signs on The Nexus. I'd be curious to see if we're all pretty evenly divided, or if there tends to be a bias toward specific signs.

Yea? Nae? Is this just a totally geeky suggestion?

Thanks for sharing man!
-idt

Nice tip WS, thanks!
Check out WorldWide Telescope, it's similar but more specialized:
http://www.worldwidetelescope.org

But nothing beats the real thing, when I was a kid I built a telescope and had some great cosmic experiences!

Already been done... http://www.dmt-nexus.me/....aspx?g=posts&t=1053

I remember that one, it was one of the first real detailed & interesting photos that came back from Hubble that showed something human's had never seen before (I think...).
I was around 20yrs old @ the time & was convinced that it was an eye watching us from where ever!!
I understand things a bit more now.



I'm pretty sure that question has been asked before, but I don't know about a poll being made for it.
You could use "search" to find any older threads dealing with this & add to it, bumping it up for everyone's attention.
Or you could make a new one of your own, with the poll attached.

Either way, I'm sure there will be plenty of people wanting to know the same thing.
BTW, I'm a Capircorn.

I'll have to give that worldwidetelescope site a try, the more the merrier!!
Thanks tryptographer!!
This stuff amazes me!!

Cheers guy's!

WS

I found this feature a couple of months ago and indeed, I found myself a couple of hours later still drooling at infinity, where our origins are.