The World Wide Telescope (WWT) is a software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes for a seamless exploration of the universe. (
http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx )
Choose from a growing number of guided tours of the sky by astronomers and educators from some of the most famous observatories and planetariums in the country. Feel free at any time to pause the tour, explore on your own (with multiple information sources for objects at your fingertips), and rejoin the tour where you left off. Join Harvard Astronomer Alyssa Goodman on a journey showing how dust in the Milky Way Galaxy condenses into stars and planets. Take a tour with University of Chicago Cosmologist Mike Gladders two billion years into the past to see a gravitational lens bending the light from galaxies allowing you to see billions more years into the past. WorldWide Telescope is created with the Microsoft® high performance Visual Experience Engine™ and allows seamless panning and zooming around the night sky, planets, and image environments. View the sky from multiple wavelengths: See the x-ray view of the sky and zoom into bright radiation clouds, and then crossfade into the visible light view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from a thousand years ago. Switch to the Hydrogen Alpha view to see the distribution and illumination of massive primordial hydrogen cloud structures lit up by the high energy radiation coming from nearby stars in the Milky Way. These are just two of many different ways to reveal the hidden structures in the universe with the WorldWide Telescope. Seamlessly pan and zoom from aerial views of the Moon and selected planets, as well as see their precise positions in the sky from any location on Earth and any time in the past or future with the Microsoft Visual Experience Engine.
WWT is a single rich application portal that blends terabytes of images, information, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a seamless, immersive, rich media experience. Kids of all ages will feel empowered to explore and understand the universe with its simple and powerful user interface.
Microsoft Research is dedicating WorldWide Telescope to Jim Gray, without whom this project would not have happened and is releasing WWT as a free resource to the astronomy and education community with the hope that it will inspire and empower people to explore and understand the universe like never before.
Getting started with WWT:
You can get started by learning how to use various features and options in WWT, or you can explore WWT's collections of deep sky objects, the Earth, or the Moon. You can also play a guided tour to learn about some of WWT's features or tour a galaxy.
Exploring with WWT:
You can explore the Earth, planets, panoramas, and deep into the sky. The way that you navigate is the same for each: select a view, select the imagery, and explore the images in the Field of View.
Creating, playing, and sharing guided tours and collections:
You can use WWT to play, create, and share slide-based, guided tours that you create in the WWT. Slide-based tours are similar to a PowerPoint® slideshow.
Creating tours can be as simple as showing images of deep sky objects or places on the Earth that you have visited. Or it can be as immersive as combining images with art and music to illustrate and enhance your tour. You can also add common license art and music to complement your tour.
Researching with WWT:
You can research objects by typing its common or catalog name into WWT's search box for the object. For example, you can type either "Cat's eye" or "NGC 6543" to display the Cat's Eye Nebula. You can also browse the skies and right-click an interesting object to open the Finder Scope with its research links.
You can also change your Imagery set and compare images taken at different wavelengths of a selected object with the Image Crossfade slider.
Joining and sharing with communities:
Communities are great places to meet and share information with people who share your interests. Often communities are associated with product manufacturers, such as Meade Instruments Corporation or Sky and Telescope magazine, or scientific communities, such as Harvard/Smithsonian or NASA. Many communities let you join even if you don't purchase their products or belong to their institution, but joining requirements will vary depending on the community.
You can also create your own community, populate it with items that are of specific interest to your community, and e-mail your community to your colleagues so they can join you.
Connecting and controlling your Telescope:
Take WWT with your telescope when you go stargazing to control your telescope and track your observing list. But first, you must install the ASCOM Platform software, connect your telescope to your computer, and enter your telescope's settings into WWT.
If you get new components for your telescope, you can change the configuration in WWT.
Changing the Field of View:
The Field of View is comprised of a view subject (selected with the Look At arrow) and an Imagery set (selected with the Imagery arrow). For example, you can see images of the sky taken at the hydrogen alpha or near-infrared wavelengths. Or you can see the Earth at night with all the cities lit up or with city and highways superimposed on the Earth's surface.
You can also change the WWT navigational aids (the horizon, altitude/azimuth, constellation lines, and overlays), your observing location (the city from which you are looking at the sky), or viewing hardware (specific cameras, telescopes, or eyepieces).
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