Star Viewer map

I've added a new video to the Star Viewer map. The video is the latest from the always excellent Hubblecast series and shows a spectacular view of M66.

M66 is the largest player of the Leo Triplet, and a galaxy with an unusual anatomy: it displays asymmetric spiral arms and an apparently displaced core. The peculiar anatomy is most likely caused by the gravitational pull of the other two members of the trio.

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Star Viewer Map Update

Added video number 71 to the Star Viewer map.

The latest video comes curtsey of NASA. The video shows an impressive colour composite of spiral galaxy M81 across the electromagnetic spectrum. It combines X-ray data (blue) from the Chandra Observatory, infrared data (pink) from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and an ultraviolet image (purple) from the GALEX satellite, with a visible light (green) Hubble image.

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Star Viewer map

I've just added the 70th video to the Star Viewer map. The latest video is an animation of the supernova remnant N 63A.

This violent and chaotic-looking mass of gas and dust is the remains of a massive star that exploded. N 63A is in the nearby galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Visible from the southern hemisphere, the LMC is an irregular galaxy lying 160,000 light-years from our own Milky Way galaxy.

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Star Map

The Star Map is an animated tour of some of the amazing Hubble and Spitzer telescope imagery as seen in Google Sky. The map animates through a number of galaxies. All you have to do is press 'play' and sit back as the Star Map takes you on a virtual tour of the Universe.

If you like to take a little extra time over your space travel you can always use the Star Viewer map.

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Star Viewer Map

I've added a new video from the Spitzer Hidden Universe series to the Star Viewer Map. The new video shows the formation of crystalline structures caused when material from Ex Lupi's disk started falling into the central star.

EX Lupi is in the constellation Lupus, about 500 light years away. To view the video select EX Lupi from the left hand side-panel or from the recently added link under the map. Then click on the blue square map marker on the map.

I've also added a comments section to the map, so now you can also leave feedback on the page.

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Star Viewer Update

I've added another video to the Star Viewer Map. The latest video to be added to the map is a 3D animation of Pismis 24-1.

Pismis 24-1 (also known as HDe 319718) is part of an open cluster in the nebula NGC 6357. Pismis 24-1 is the largest and more brilliant of the visible stars of this cluster and is one of the most massive stars known. The star is at least a double star, as revealed by the recent observation of camera ACS of the Hubble space telescope.

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Medusa Map

I've added a video of the Medusa Galaxy to the Star Viewer Map. To view the video click the link at the bottom of the page.

Due to the imminent demise of Google Pages I've also had to change the home page of the Star Viewer Map. It will still work on the previous Google Pages link for a few more days.

However, if you have the Star Viewer Map bookmarked, you will need to change the url to:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/keir.clarke/star/sky.htm

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