Skyshooter
member
Reged: 04/07/08
Posts: 46
Loc: S. Utah, U.S.A.
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Before work this morning I took a look at the sky and telescope web site. They announced a new FREE program called WWT, world wide telescope. I haven't the time for all the particulars but when I download it I'll let you know what I think. It's for Windows XP and Vista, Free of Charge, is ascom compliant... in beta now but looks very cool. Check out the lead story at www.skyandtelescope.com
Ciao
Ed
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C8 SCT, f/6.3 reducer, WO ZS66SD
Losmandy GM8, SSAG, Canon XS (stock)
Toshiba NB205 (field computer)
DSS, PS Elements 7, Bahtinov Mask
Plethora of eyepieces and lots of patience !
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FarmerDave
sage
Reged: 09/07/07
Posts: 414
Loc: Northern Virginia
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Here's the link: http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/
It's very cool.
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Celestron C6/C9.25/CG-5GT Mount
Orion 80ED/EON 72/Supercharged Atlas EQ-G
Garrett Optical Signature Series 10x50
Canon XTi (soon to be modded)/Canon 40D (unmodded)
Meade DSI/Meade DSI Pro/Philips SPC900N
1944 Ford 2N/1948 Ford 8N
Bahtinov Mask Generator * AstroCataLink * 40DShutterCount
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The bear
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 02/11/08
Posts: 824
Loc: rushville, indiana
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thanks i am checking it out looks cool
doc
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Longitude -85.42786 Latitude 39.59153
"current build 6 inch F6.5 "Little Toe"
"if all else fails use duct tape "works for me"
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kurat
member
Reged: 05/07/08
Posts: 58
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I checked it out, it seems to be more of a tutorial, its no Starry Night or The Sky, but seems to be a good astronomy tour guide and since its web based, you have to be on line, the tours are cached till you choose to clear it out, there is telescope control, I will stick with my Starry Night Pro 6, in my opinion, I think WWT can be a stepping stone to astronomy but people with more experiance will find it boring, just my 2 cents.
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RandallK
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/10/06
Posts: 1003
Loc: Nanaimo, B. C. Canada
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Not bad at all, it interfaces with ASCOM and if you examine it more carefully, there is lots of stuff in there. I like the constellation thumbnails at the top, and at the bottom (as you select the const. thumbnail), you get thumbnails of the features in that constellation. No doubt, you can then go-to with your scope. The only hindrance could be having to be connected to the web. I haven't gone that far yet with it.
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Scopes: Meade SC-8AT w UHTC
Orion ST-80 Refractor (Autoguiding)
SkyWatcher 5" F/5 Reflector
SkyWatcher 127mm MAK
Mount: HEQ5 Pro
Cameras: Orion Starshoot DS Colour Imager V.1
Imaging Source Webcam DMK21AU04.AS
Canon XSi 450D Unmodded
Palm TX PDA w Astromist and Bluetooth wireles control.
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ragebot
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 08/26/05
Posts: 1671
Loc: Tallahassee, FL, USA
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Just saw this on slashdot. You gotta love the price and it does seem like a nice program; even with its limitations.
I saw some gripes on slashdot about how it only runs on Windows, but early reviews seem to think it interface is superior to google sky.
Still you gotta love the price.
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Meade ETX 90, Meade AR5, Orion ED80, Atlas GT, 8 in Newt, Coronado DS SM40, Garrett 10.5X70, Sigma SD10, SD14, Canon 1D2, Xti, Nikon CP4500, C-14
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kurat
member
Reged: 05/07/08
Posts: 58
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I think eventualy MS is going to place WWT in their premium pay services or make it some kind of add-on at extra cost on something like Encrata, did you see the system requirements, it almost makes the latest greatest laptop obsolete.
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RandallK
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/10/06
Posts: 1003
Loc: Nanaimo, B. C. Canada
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I'm running it on my laptop, 1.8Ghz Sempron Processor, Comapq HP with shared 128mb video and it runs very smooth. I have been testing the ASCOM driver platform with it and it is bang on in controlling my HEQ5-Pro mount. The requiremnets (this time) seem to be over rated.
The only thing I have noticed is that there is no red screen mode. If you have 1.8 to 2 G processor with a Gig of RAM on your laptop, it should run pretty good.
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Scopes: Meade SC-8AT w UHTC
Orion ST-80 Refractor (Autoguiding)
SkyWatcher 5" F/5 Reflector
SkyWatcher 127mm MAK
Mount: HEQ5 Pro
Cameras: Orion Starshoot DS Colour Imager V.1
Imaging Source Webcam DMK21AU04.AS
Canon XSi 450D Unmodded
Palm TX PDA w Astromist and Bluetooth wireles control.
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basel10
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 07/15/05
Posts: 805
Loc: TN
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I would not even remotely consider WWT for observation planning or field use. It has a very small deep sky database, no red screen and many many other reasons. But you know what it doesn't need to be. We have plenty of programs that fit this bill and free too.
WWT does fill an urgent need and that is popular, pretty, free, educational software for the masses. This is a great tool for astronomy outreach. This is an awesome tool for astronomy days, public observing talks and schools. The guides are fantastic. You can setup narrated sky tours. You can even setup a community and have people download these guides from your clubs website.
Don't even waste your time about if it has a red screen, how well it connects to a scope, chart printing as there are 99999999 other far better programs for that. When it comes to a free program that is great for public outreach WWT is a god send.
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www.knoxvilleobservers.org
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bicparker
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/07/05
Posts: 1696
Loc: Plano, TX
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Quote:
I'm running it on my laptop, 1.8Ghz Sempron Processor, Comapq HP with shared 128mb video and it runs very smooth. I have been testing the ASCOM driver platform with it and it is bang on in controlling my HEQ5-Pro mount. The requiremnets (this time) seem to be over rated.
The only thing I have noticed is that there is no red screen mode. If you have 1.8 to 2 G processor with a Gig of RAM on your laptop, it should run pretty good.
The key requirement is to have a good video card with at least 128mb of video RAM. Also make certain you have DirectX and any 3D graphics drivers updated, especially if you are going to run this on XP. Vista will work better with it since it uses vector graphics instead of the bitmap translation on XP.
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Bic Parker
17.5" f/5 dob
10" f/10 SCT
5" f/8 refractor
80mm f/6 refractor
66mm f/6 refractor
Plus a few others out of the rotation
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Tom Trusock
Reged: 02/26/02
Posts: 29931
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Quote:
This is an awesome tool for astronomy days, public observing talks and schools.
Yeah, except it apparently does not play well with proxies. It can't connect to the internet from school, making it - well, pretty useless for my upcoming class.
(I have no idea why they don't have a connection tab that allows you to manually plug in your proxy. I hope this is something they remedy.)
T
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Hyperbole - undoubtedly the best thing ever.
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RandallK
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/10/06
Posts: 1003
Loc: Nanaimo, B. C. Canada
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There's a suggestions section on the WWT site. I submitted one for "red screen mode". I'm sure they'll (MS) will pay attention to it.
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Scopes: Meade SC-8AT w UHTC
Orion ST-80 Refractor (Autoguiding)
SkyWatcher 5" F/5 Reflector
SkyWatcher 127mm MAK
Mount: HEQ5 Pro
Cameras: Orion Starshoot DS Colour Imager V.1
Imaging Source Webcam DMK21AU04.AS
Canon XSi 450D Unmodded
Palm TX PDA w Astromist and Bluetooth wireles control.
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bicparker
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/07/05
Posts: 1696
Loc: Plano, TX
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I am really curious as to how many actual amateur astronomers (if any) were asked to consult or assist with this project.
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Bic Parker
17.5" f/5 dob
10" f/10 SCT
5" f/8 refractor
80mm f/6 refractor
66mm f/6 refractor
Plus a few others out of the rotation
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kurat
member
Reged: 05/07/08
Posts: 58
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This is just my opinon people, but the more I use WWT, the more I dont care for it, I used the research button to get some info on a listed unknown star and I get linked to a site archive that has what it looks like is a scanned photo with a big scratch on it, to be critical about it, I think WWT was just slapped together using different web based data bases, put on a nice interface and whola here is a astronomy program, I read the faq's on it and they stated it will be a free service to education and astronomy community, I remember when the web based Encarta came out and it was free for a while then it was added to the MSN premium pay services.
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Tom Trusock
Reged: 02/26/02
Posts: 29931
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Quote:
Quote:
This is an awesome tool for astronomy days, public observing talks and schools.
Yeah, except it apparently does not play well with proxies. It can't connect to the internet from school, making it - well, pretty useless for my upcoming class.
(I have no idea why they don't have a connection tab that allows you to manually plug in your proxy. I hope this is something they remedy.)
T
And yes, I tried their suggested resolution (s).
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Hyperbole - undoubtedly the best thing ever.
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RandallK
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/10/06
Posts: 1003
Loc: Nanaimo, B. C. Canada
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In the freeware (so far) realm, I still think Cartes du Ciel is the best. It's not a hog on resources, esp. on a laptop, controls your scope via ASCOM with no problems.
I have Starry Night Plus 5.8 as payware and I use it for planning and find it an excellent planetarium software.
I have Astromist on my Palm Pilot and can also control by scope via Bluetooth with it. It too is an excellent program.
WWT I like, probably because it's something new on the table for astronomy. Maybe it will go payware but the way I see it is that we're lucky to have new programs catering to our hobby. Whether we like them or not is another question, but the fact that someone out there is catering to us is important in itself. I think Microsoft deserves applause on this endeavour.
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Scopes: Meade SC-8AT w UHTC
Orion ST-80 Refractor (Autoguiding)
SkyWatcher 5" F/5 Reflector
SkyWatcher 127mm MAK
Mount: HEQ5 Pro
Cameras: Orion Starshoot DS Colour Imager V.1
Imaging Source Webcam DMK21AU04.AS
Canon XSi 450D Unmodded
Palm TX PDA w Astromist and Bluetooth wireles control.
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4553
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Quote:
I would not even remotely consider WWT for observation planning or field use. It has a very small deep sky database, no red screen and many many other reasons. But you know what it doesn't need to be. We have plenty of programs that fit this bill and free too.
True...BUT...
Given the resources behind it and the obvious potential that is there, I can see amazing things being done with this software in the future. Couple the fast and smooth mechanics of the program with a wi-fi connection (haven't been to a star party in a while without one), and ASCOM, and the Tours function, and, yes, I can see this thing putting a lot of the software we love and use today in the ground. Much depends on how much support Microsoft continues to give this program and how much interest it generates among third parties. Small database? I haven't checked, but I haven't searched for an NGC or IC and come up empty...that's all most of us want most of the time, anyway. Not like I'm a-gonna see ESO galaxies with my dad-gummed C8 from Possum Swamp, anyways.
Me? I forsee great things for it M-A-Y-B-E...
And that's definite!
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4553
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Quote:
I think eventualy MS is going to place WWT in their premium pay services or make it some kind of add-on at extra cost on something like Encrata, did you see the system requirements, it almost makes the latest greatest laptop obsolete.
Wouldn't say that. Its minimum requirements are quite modest, and are available in the typical 400 buck box from BestBuy these days.
Given MS's educational thrust for this I very much doubt it will be switched to "pay to play" anymore than Google Earth has been. Which doesn't mean they might not offer enhanced features for $$$ at some point.
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4553
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Quote:
This is just my opinon people, but the more I use WWT, the more I dont care for it, I used the research button to get some info on a listed unknown star and I get linked to a site archive that has what it looks like is a scanned photo with a big scratch on it,
A quick check of the research button showed resources that include SIMBAD, NED, and ADS...don't see how you can get a whole lot better than that.
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
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basel10
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 07/15/05
Posts: 805
Loc: TN
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What I would really like to impress upon people in this forum is to take a serious look at the guided tours. As you watch the tours let them inspire you on what you can do to use WWT to educate and outreach to the public. There are detailed instructions on how to create the tours and most importantly share them with others. Every club in the nation should have many tours available to download from their website within the next 6 months. This is a wonderful tool to reach the masses and educate them with music, pretty pictures and narration. Lets take advantage of what we have been given for free.
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www.knoxvilleobservers.org
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