Google Sky is now online at http://www.google.com/sky/ ! I tried it and sent the following feedback to Google Sky team [edited]. Maybe I was a bit harsh on them, but I am excited about the concept of Google Sky, and do want to hold Google to a high standard: 1: When you zoom in, it has to load new images. For me the update time was OK over a 1 Mbps download, using a 2-year old PC. 2: Some images are at the wrong angle. I selected M4 and zoomed out to show the rest of Scorpio. This has been rotated by about 90 degrees relative to the true sky [i.e. relative to N-is-up]. This is a mistake, like turning N America through 90 degrees. 3: I would like to mouse over an object and have a pop up caption - Google markers are just not the same. 4: I'd like to be able to mimic reality. Have an option to add planets comets and asteroids at their correct position and brightness. Then the sky will look realistic. 5: The planets are drawn at their position today, but at midnight (00 h) UTC. Please calculate the position now. 6: If I zoom into the planet pictures I can't get very much detail. Some amateurs can photograph more detail. Provide more data, and perhaps show planetary moons. For bonus points, work out which part of the planet is facing us and show the appropriate image. 7: For more bonus points, add the horizon, color the image for the time of day: 3 colors for day, moonlight/twilight, and dark. Better, calculate the position of bright satellites visible from my location. Again, free software does this. 8: There is an occasional bug "no imagery available" even at wide fields of view. Work around is to zoom out then zoom back in. Bottom line, the sky is dynamic and there is some good software competing with Google Sky. Showing static images may be good for Google Earth, but does not work for the sky. You might consult with the Astronomical League. Afterwards, I thought that the cursor position shows RA & Dec, which are updated as you move the mouse. Quick: which constellation corresponds to RA 10h and Dec 65 degrees?! So it would also be good to show the constellation as you move the mouse. I think it'd be good to try it and to provide feedback straight to Google Sky. Best, Mark
As someone who works for Google, let me just say that Google often releases products earlier than most companies (even though they're often not entirely ready or as feature rich as other products) in hopes of getting just this sort of feedback, and with plans to continually improve it (in contrast to many software companies that release and forget...or hold their improvements until the next time they can charge their customers). I think your feedback is great and will probably be well received. On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 7:52 PM, Mark Hanning-Lee <markhl@prodigy.net> wrote:
Google Sky is now online at http://www.google.com/sky/ ! I tried it and sent the following feedback to Google Sky team [edited]. Maybe I was a bit harsh on them, but I am excited about the concept of Google Sky, and do want to hold Google to a high standard:
1: When you zoom in, it has to load new images. For me the update time was OK over a 1 Mbps download, using a 2-year old PC.
2: Some images are at the wrong angle. I selected M4 and zoomed out to show the rest of Scorpio. This has been rotated by about 90 degrees relative to the true sky [i.e. relative to N-is-up]. This is a mistake, like turning N America through 90 degrees.
3: I would like to mouse over an object and have a pop up caption - Google markers are just not the same.
4: I'd like to be able to mimic reality. Have an option to add planets comets and asteroids at their correct position and brightness. Then the sky will look realistic.
5: The planets are drawn at their position today, but at midnight (00 h) UTC. Please calculate the position now.
6: If I zoom into the planet pictures I can't get very much detail. Some amateurs can photograph more detail. Provide more data, and perhaps show planetary moons. For bonus points, work out which part of the planet is facing us and show the appropriate image.
7: For more bonus points, add the horizon, color the image for the time of day: 3 colors for day, moonlight/twilight, and dark. Better, calculate the position of bright satellites visible from my location. Again, free software does this.
8: There is an occasional bug "no imagery available" even at wide fields of view. Work around is to zoom out then zoom back in.
Bottom line, the sky is dynamic and there is some good software competing with Google Sky. Showing static images may be good for Google Earth, but does not work for the sky. You might consult with the Astronomical League.
Afterwards, I thought that the cursor position shows RA & Dec, which are updated as you move the mouse. Quick: which constellation corresponds to RA 10h and Dec 65 degrees?! So it would also be good to show the constellation as you move the mouse.
I think it'd be good to try it and to provide feedback straight to Google Sky.
Best, Mark _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
participants (2)
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Chris Russell -
Mark Hanning-Lee