Last week, Senior Editor Francis Reddy wrote about his experience with Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope (WWT) at the American Astronomical Society’s January meeting.
Reddy summed up this introduction to Microsoft’s latest innovation as such:
Imagine terabytes of astronomical imagery, ranging across the spectrum from radio waves to X-rays, seamlessly integrated and available in an easy-to-use interface. Pan left, right, up, down. Zoom in, merge different wavelengths, zoom some more — zoom down to the limit of the data…
The presentation is simply gorgeous. But what makes WorldWide Telescope sing is the interface’s fluidity, which allows you to merge multiwavelength imagery from 10 different observatories — including the Hubble Space Telescope. That’s in part what brought a tear to the eye of tech blogger Robert Scoble: “It’s been a long while since Microsoft did something that had an emotional impact on me like that.”
The technology reporters and analysts at CNET have created a video showing some of WWT's interface and features. Don’t expect tire-kicking from the CNET crew, just a meet and greet with the project and some of the people behind it.
Currently, members of Astronomy’s staff are exploring the WWT. Stay tuned for future comments from us as the spring launch approaches.
Take a look at the video and start compiling your wish list. Tell us what you think WWT should do.