I really try to avoid back-to-back Google posts, but this new feature/product/service by Google is too good to pass up posting about. Download the latest version (4.2) of Google Earth then switch to the Sky view by clicking the astronomy icon in the toolbar or selecting the “Switch to Sky” menu option under the View menu. You’re now presented with a view of the night sky!

Just like Google Earth, you can pan, zoom, and rotate your view (it seems you can’t tilt the view—which makes sense, actually). When you zoom in, higher-resolution photos of stars, nebulae, and galaxies stream in, just like in Google Earth. And like the Earth version, you can add placemarks and share them as KML files. Sweet. Also, the Google Earth Layers are now replaced with a lot of astronomy-related collections and catalogs (like the Messier objects—pronounced /messy-YAY/ not /messy-ER/). There’s certainly plenty to explore.

I disclosed eight months ago that I used to be an astronomy addict. Well, Sky in Google Earth (Google Night Sky?) may certainly rekindle the stargazer kid in me. Hehehe.

For more information, here’s the Google announcement about it on the Google LatLong Blog, the official Sky in Google Earth page, which includes a short YouTube video, and a third-party blog post with an even more informative video.

Bonus: if you’re wondering if there’s an equivalent for Google Maps, then check out Sky-Map.org. The site is not Google-affiliated, but they adapted the Google Maps interface in order to show the night sky.