Monday, January 16, 2012

Google Sky Map

If there's one thing a smartphone has got to be good for, it's astronomy. In a flash of inspiration this evening I downloaded the free Google Sky Map app.

It's augmented reality: you stand outside and look at the stars, holding the phone in front of you. The phone knows its own orientation so you see the same night sky on the screen - but everything's named.

The constellations are drawn in and you can enter the name of an object (eg the Andromeda galaxy, M31) and the screen will point you to where it is (pretty much overhead after dinner this evening).

In other news, the next phase of my contract has started and I was huddled over a laptop for most of the day.

Now if I could only get some of that new Yves Saint Laurent Forever Young Liberator cream.