Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope

Available Spring 2008 as a free download is the greatest thing Microsoft has done since the 80s. Below you’ll see the video showing Roy Gould, from the Harvard Center for Astrophysics, introducing Microsoft’s WorldWideTelescope in front of a live audience. The whole thing lasts about 7 minutes. If you don’t have that long, check out just the 1st couple of minutes. That’s all I was going to devote to it to begin with, but I couldn’t help watching all of it (Except the BMW thing at the end… out of my range).

From the FAQ at WorldWideTelescope.org

WorldWide Telescope is an observatory on your desktop, allowing you to see the sky in a way you have never seen before; individual exploration, multi-wavelength views, stars and planets within context to each other, zoom in/out, and a capability for anyone to create and share a tour of the universe.

The Visual Experience Engine delivers seamless panning zooming around the night sky.

WWT delivers seamless integration of science:-relevant information including multi-wavelength, multiple telescope distributed image and data sets, and one-click contextual access to distributed Web information and data sources.

Imagine that. I’ve always wanted to be able to tie in hundreds of telescopes, capable of capturing multiple wavelengths and enhanced with the ability to find cross-referenced information on nearly anything I could find in the sky…

I am Jon, and I am just going to love this.

Thanks to GeeksAreSexy, Ted.com and Microsoft.