WorldWideTelescope

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“…a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes in the world for a seamless, guided exploration of the universe.

WorldWide Telescope, created with Microsoft’s high-performance Visual Experience Engine™, enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience.” (Microsoft Research)

Coming this spring. [Lest you think this sounds like an ad for Micro$oft, it is just that this seems charming.]