Koppernigk

A family portrait

Because I had nothing better to do, I created this picture with Celestia. It shows the eight planets (no, no, Pluto is a dwarf planet) at actual size differences. From left to right, top to bottom, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

Click on the picture for a larger size. Soon we will discover truckloads of these familiies of solar systems. Count my words. Or Kepler's.

It won't and can't, but what if it could and would?

It won't happen, and it can't even happen, but what would if it could happen?

The day the Earth stood still. If it would happen a computer program can help you out what would happen:

"The following is not a futuristic scenario. It is not science fiction. It is a demonstration of the capabilities of GIS to model the results of an extremely unlikely, yet intellectually fascinating query: What would happen if the earth stopped spinning? ArcGIS was used to perform complex raster analysis and volumetric computations and generate maps that visualize these results. ..." (ESRI)

And my feet would be very wet. 

The Universe in your pocket

I don't do Android but if you do here's a nifty application for your phone: the universe in your pocket with Google Sky Map.

Stellarium updated to 0.10.4

Nobody told me Stellarium 0.10.4 is out. So probably no one told you too. So I tell you now. Download. Install. Run. Enjoy. Free.

Download Stellarium, 0.10.4 here.

Sun iPhone APP

For those with iPhones and an unhealthy interest in the Sun's whereabouts NASA has a STEREO app for free. Read more about it here.

The Empire Strikes Back

Google Earth is already equipped with a lot of high resolution pictures, but it seems competitor Darth "Microsoft" Vader is striking back:

"NASA and Microsoft Corp. announced Tuesday plans to make planetary images and data available via the Internet under a Space Act Agreement.

Through this project, NASA and Microsoft jointly will develop the technology and infrastructure necessary to make the most interesting NASA content - including high-resolution scientific images and data from Mars and the moon - explorable on WorldWide Telescope, Microsoft's online virtual telescope for exploring the universe.

"Making NASA's scientific and astronomical data more accessible to the public is a high priority for NASA, especially given the new administration's recent emphasis on open government and transparency," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Under the joint agreement, NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will process and host more than 100 terabytes of data, enough to fill 20,000 DVDs.

WorldWide Telescope will incorporate the data later in 2009 and feature imagery from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, known as MRO. Launched in August 2005, MRO has been examining Mars with a high-resolution camera and five other instruments since 2006 and has returned more data than all other Mars missions combined..." (SkyNightly)

Propel yourself to Google Mars

Always wanted to visit Mars but were afraid to ask? Download the latest release of Google Earth (5) and visit Mars, soaring its surface like the Earth's surface in earlier releases of GE.

Olympus Mons, Google Mars

You can use the updater function in your already existing copy of Google Earth, with Google Updater at the home page of GE here, but can also directly download it from the help center here. Windows and Mac, release is beta. After installing, click on the planet symbol in the navigation bar (a small picture of a ringed planet) and choose 'Mars'.

Virtual Moon Atlas

I might have pointed out before that Virtual Moon Atlas is a nice OpenGL application showing you lunar phases, details and a lot more for both the near side and the far side of the Moon if you want in realtime. You can also extend the program with a database of Clementine pics. Download the program and extensions here, and if you're a regular Moon spotter, buy the pro version.

WorldWide Telescope

Just installed Windows XP SP3 and everything is still in working order. This time the Service Pack gamble seems to have turned out right. But there's more software from Microsoft.
If you want more than Google Sky, there's now Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope. Download it directly here. You need .Net 2.0. Try first, if somethings amiss see if it's .Net framework missing. Most people with Windows computers will have it on their machines.

Skygazing on your Pocket PC

There are many very interesting astronomy programs for free on the Windows PC, like the superb Celestia, the impressive Stellarium, and Virtual Moon Atlas. For the Pocket PC it's considerably less. There's less than a handful of applications for the Pocket PC that are interesting enough. Taiyoukei is one of them; it's great but it needs extra installation of Visual Basic runtimes on the PPC, which makes it less attractive. I'm not going to buy a chair if id needs a separate floor to support it.

Most others are Sun/Moon/Ephemerides programs. Orionic is a small program which is freeware, but very basic.

Paid versions are available, like TheSky Pocket Version, but at $79 that's a hefty tag. I useNomad Electronics Pocket Stars coming at $19.95. Vito Astronavigator is another coming with that price tag, looking promising, but no experience with it. All in all a bit scarce. If someone has better experience with other software (both freeware, shareware and commercial ware), I'd love to hear it.

New York is neighbor with LA, isn't it?

Google Earth cam with a new release, version 4.3 beta, now with day and night simulation, a different control panel, and more minor improvements and changes.

Of course the flight simulator and Google Sky are still present. The latter is a very cool idea, but it's still riddled with mistakes of all kinds, and not really very user friendly so far.
Here's a picture of Epsilon Lyrae, which is suddenly accompanied by (comments about) Pollux (Beta Geminorum) at very, very close distance.

But hey, it's free! Download here.

Clear Sky Clock

It's official. The Skyclock Company of Michigan is the official turd of this week. Read here and here why we at Koppernigk officially uncondone Skyclock Company of Michigan products for thousands of skyclock years to come. Never, ever buy stuff from them, folks. If you're such a dumbo company, you're sure to produce dumbo products.

Use products of intelligent people. Like Clear Sky Chart, if you live in the US and Mexico, sadly in the vicinity of the above Official Turd Of The Week Company in Michigan.

(image taken from the real and intelligent clear sky clock)

Google Sky gets competition

WWT is on its way.

ps. of course it's not going to "revolutionize the way we look at the universe". Could Microsoft for once do without the hype?

Google Earth shows you the junk

Here you can download an extremely cool kml-file (Google Earth plugin) to view space debri and all. Simply download the kml-file and open it with Google Earth.

Nifty.

Google Flight Simulator

A bit off topic, but anyhow.
Recently, Google released a new version of Google Earth, including Google Sky. Less known is that the program also includes a fairly crude flight simulator. If you start Google Earth, and either press CTRL+SHIFT+A or CTRL+WINDOWS KEY+A a dialog will open. After the first time, an additional option will appear in the "Extra" menu, enabling you to open the flight simulator from there. All controls are available here. Have fun.

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Stellarium v. 0.9.0

I totally missed that a new realease of the planetarium program Stellarium has become available since June 6 of this year. Well, here's the link, as it's a must have.

From the description:

"New features for version 0.9.0:

* Larger star catalogue including stars from Hipparcos, Tycho2 and NOMAD (much of this available as a separate download)

* New sky cultures: Lakota, Navajo, Inuit, including Inuit constellation art by Johan Meuris

* New projections: Orthographic, Lamberts Equal Area, Cylinder

* Better accuracy of planetary positions

* New orbital calculation class making it possible to add comet objects (no special visualisation yet however)

* Window resizing. Full screen toggle should now work for Windows & OSX

* Fly to planets by pressing control-G when one is selected

* Landscape locations - can set the location according to the landscape

* Places of interest on Earth (city positions improved), the Moon (mission sites) and Mars (mission sites).

* New landscape: Garching, (near Munich, Germany)

* Data file layout change, which should make it easier to install extra landscapes, scripts and so on

* Some new nebula textures; more precise positioning of nebula textures

There have also been a lot of minor bug fixes, and significant changes to the code base, which make it possible for third parties to write their own modules for Stellarium, (although the API is not stable yet)."

Google Earth goes Google HST/Space!

Google Earth has always been both useful and a lot of fun as well. Now Google Earth is expanded with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute with cool astronomy features. Download and install version 4.2 from here. The download link didn't work in my copy of Firefox, so I had to use Internet Explorer. Could be a "my side only" glitch.

Traffic lights in space

As an addition to "Live hot and prosper" about the possibility of searching planets around 40 Eridani A, the alleged "Star Trek" planet Vulcan, here's a weird screenshot of 40 Eri A, B and C in a combination you can only get with that amazing piece of software Celestia.

From top to bottom: 40 Eri C, 40 Eri A (the alleged Vulcan-sun) and 40 Eri B.

This screenshot originates from the 1.5.0pre3 pre-release, which can be downloaded here.

Cartes du Ciel; Skychart 3.0 beta

Cartes du Ciel, or Skychart is a free skychart (yeah) program. Version 3.0 seems to be in beta forever; you could try it out. Skychart won't disappoint; it's as full featured as many a commercial program.

A Full Moon

Today it's a full Moon. If it's dark and clear outside, this is generally not a good time for either stargazing or for Moon observation. As the near side of the Moon is fully lit by the Sun shadows are sparse and contrast is low. It's better to observe the Moon during it's waxing or waning period, and locate the terminator. There - even with a small telescope - you'll see beautiful craters and mountain ranges, some still half in the dark, with the peaks receiving first (or last) sunlight of the Moon day which takes about 29 days to complete.

If you want not only times and tables, but a map of the Moon as well - all in OpenGL, VMA might be a piece of software for you. If you want to fly around the Moon and continue to the stars - speaking of OpenGL - did you know Celestia? Yes, you did.