Google Sky

Google Sky is a feature for Google Earth and an online sky/outer space viewer. It was created on August 27, 2007. The application allows users to view a collaboration of images from NASA satellites, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the Hubble Telescope.

It is available on Android and can be used on a smartphone as an augmented reality application.

Google Earth Version
The first Google Sky version to be created was on the virtual globe program called Google Earth. It features a number of layers, similar to the earth mode. It is mapped with images on the inside of the Google Earth sphere, with the north and south poles lining up with the two poles in Google Sky. As with other planetarium programs, it is viewed from the inside looking out from the center. It is facing competition from Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope. Layers '''
 * 1) Welcome to Sky: An introduction to the Sky mode.
 * 2) Current Sky Events ##Earth & Sky Podcasts
 * 3) Hubblecast
 * 4) StarDate from McDonald Observatory
 * 5) '''VOEventNET
 * 1) Our Solar System: Shows locations, orbits and information of the Solar System.
 * 2) Backyard Astronomy: Shows information about constellations and other space sights visible from a backyard telescope.
 * 3) '''Featured Observatories
 * 4) Hubble Showcase
 * 5) IRAS Infrared Sky


 * 1) '''Education Center
 * 2) Celestron SkyScout Audio
 * 3) Virtual Tourism
 * 4) User's Guide to Galaxies
 * 5) Life of a Star


 * 1) '''Historical Sky Maps
 * 2) Rumsey Star Maps
 * 3) Hevelius Constellations


 * 1) Sky Community: Posted KML files in the Sky forum in the Google Earth Community.

Sky Map
Sky Map is an Android implementation of Google Sky. On January 20, 2012, Google announced a student development partnership with Carnegie Mellon University and released Sky Map under the Apache 2.0 open source license. The project is available in the form of a Google Code repository.