For everyone who has spent hours zipping around the globe with Google Earth, you can now cruise through space as well with the new Google Sky feature.
You’ll find their promo video below, with astronaut Sally Ride.
My only question is, why are cheesy videos still cheesy in the same way they were 30 years ago? Can’t we make some advancements in that area? ; )
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/SbiQBeDPT5U" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Yes, cheesy indeed. Maybe they should put MTV in charge of these from now on to resolve that problem.
Does anyone else remember that children’s song about Sally Ride? I remember it going something like, “Ride, Sally Ride” which seems obvious enough, but then my memory merges it with another song (Allman Brothers, maybe?) that goes something like, “All she wants to do is ride along Sally…”
Anyhow, I totally want to blast off into Google Sky with Sally Ride. I love how the precocious Google employee seems only mildly impressed when Sally informs him that it takes 12 years for Saturn to go around the sun. Would it kill him to show a bit more enthusiasm for the painfully awkward script?
Otherwise, Google Sky seems like a pretty neat feature.
Sally says Saturn takes 12 years to go around the Sun. Wrong… it takes 29 and a half. Doh!
Lindsay … the Allman Brothers singing “ride, Sally, ride” …? Blasphemy!
You’re thinking of the song Mustang Sally, by Wilson Pickett and many others.
The Allman Brothers song you’re thinking of was probably Midnight Rider.
But I digress. Yes, a very cheesy video and an odd error by Sally Ride saying Saturn takes 12 years to orbit the sun. Even Homer nods, I suppose. Google Sky is very cool, though! We were playing with it earlier today … a bit rough in some ways still, but definitely worth checking out.
This is a fine program for the amateur astronomer. One problem I have found is this: If you type in m45 on its search(find) function, I get nothing. This occurs even if its common name is used. Other than that, it works fine.
I found the children’s song, if you’d like to sing along:
“Ride Sally Ride”
Ride Sally ride,
spread your wings and fly to the sky,
Oh Sally ride,
Sally ride.
Take your place in space flying high.
Oh Sally ride.
Sally ride.
You can soar to the moon and the stars thru the sky so blue
and woman too oooh
ride Sally ride Sally ride.
Oh Sally ride.
In my search, I also found that Lou Reed also has a song called “Ride Sally Ride.” Not sure if it’s about Sally Ride, woman astronaut.
“Mustang Sally” is the song that came to my head, too, Lindsay. Judging by the lyrics, Lou Reed’s “Ride Sally Ride” perhaps isn’t about astronomy…
I had trouble finding planets, but I’m sure with a few more hours of playing I could surf around with no problems. Any plans to incorporate Google Sky into Tonight’s Sky, Deborah? ; )
Oh, and my favorite of Greg’s lines (at 0:33 remaining)—the delivery is priceless:
“Yeah… that sounds great.”
Pretty cool. If only Google Sky had some sort of feature where a trusted friend with decades of experience peering at the night sky could tell point out something really striking that you could go outside, look up, and see for yourself …
Kidding aside, I’m excited at how well it’s caught on. We are just a pale blue dot.
The video doesn’t seem so terrible to me - Saturn’s period aside, it’s Sally Ride and a guy from Google looking at Google Sky. Cool.
I mean, sure, it’s cheesy, but can anyone point to a clear, effective industrial demonstration video that isn’t? It’s not a prime-time tv ad for an suv.
That aside, Google sky is pretty cool. They’ve got some kinks to work out, but I really like how it zooms in to the Hubble pics. Very cool.
Google Sky is amazing! Just think of what it will be like ten years from now, as our modern technology improves and new discoveries can be shared with the rest of us, almost immediately!
Robert, all I’m saying is Google employs some of the most innovative people who have ever watched videos on the internet. I mean, they have Google Video - surely someone within the company can recognize what makes a good video.
For example, the video for the last new Google Map Feature, Street View, was kind of endearing. That’s what happens when you put a guy in an orange spandex unitard and then strap him into an icon costume - he climbs into people’s hearts.
Even if Sally Ride refused to wear a unitard, the Sky people could have at least cut the lame soundtrack and substituted it with one of the many Sally Ride songs available.
They put up a correction!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEdz_-_3hLk
I was disappointed to find that Pluto and Eris are not included in the planets section of Google Sky, and I hope they correct this.
The error regarding Saturn’s orbit was probably due to an inadvertent error confusing it with Jupiter, whose orbital period is 12 years.
Thanks for pointing out the correction, Gym. Saturn’s sigh in that video is priceless.
Laurel, you think this is a case of discrimination against Dwarf Planets?
Personally, I don’t accept the term “dwarf planet” because of strong objections to last year’s IAU decision, which was made by four percent of its membership in a very flawed process. The determination that a “dwarf planet,” which linguistically is a noun modified by an adjective, is not a planet at all, makes absolutely no sense.
I do believe the exclusion of Pluto and Eris is a byproduct of this decision and a textbook case of why the decision is so wrong. Before the IAU vote, there would have been no question of whether to include Pluto. Had the IAU adopted the resolution stating that “dwarf planets” are a subclass of the broader term “planet,” we most likely would have Pluto, Eris, and Ceres in Google Sky. Instead, we have a great disservice to the public by the exclusion of all of these bodies–not very encouraging in what should be a project geared to public outreach and education.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16956300/the_prophet_of_climate_change_james_lovelock/4