Google Sky API: Early usage examples

Google Maps’ API now officially supports Google Sky imagery. HeyWhatsThat takes quick advantage of this to make a planisphere tool for the web. Alasdair Alan ar The Daily Ack, meanwhile, spends a productive weekend playing with the API to 1) make it compatible with PLASTIC, an emerging protocol for communiication between astronomical applications, and 2) make it work on the iPhone. All very impressive!

[Update 2:40 UTC: The possibilities are only just now beginning to percolate through: In a few months, when the iPhone SDK comes out, why not view astroreferenced news on your iPhone with Google Sky, and then (here is the cool bit) control your telescope with the iPhone to get it to view the location in question automatically!]

2 thoughts on “Google Sky API: Early usage examples”

  1. I’m putting together a Sky Video Map plotting videos of astronomical features on Google Sky.

    At the moment there is a bug in the api where the zoom level is set to 19 instead of 10. Hence user generated Sky maps start acting a little crazy when you zoom in beyond ten.

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