Over at Microsoft they are offering a WorldWide Telescope in which users will be able to view the universe in a virtual world from the comfort of their computer. The application software will allow a user to zoom and pan the skies. Microsoft describes the experience as:

WorldWide Telescope is created with the Microsoft® high performance Visual Experience Engine™ and allows seamless panning and zooming around the night sky, planets, and image environments. View the sky from multiple wavelengths: See the x-ray view of the sky and zoom into bright radiation clouds, and then crossfade into the visible light view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from a thousand years ago. Switch to the Hydrogen Alpha view to see the distribution and illumination of massive primordial hydrogen cloud structures lit up by the high energy radiation coming from nearby stars in the Milky Way. These are just two of many different ways to reveal the hidden structures in the universe with the WorldWide Telescope. Seamlessly pan and zoom from aerial views of the Moon and selected planets, as well as see their precise positions in the sky from any location on Earth and any time in the past or future with the Microsoft Visual Experience Engine.

So take the WorldWide Telescope for a spin and see what you think.

Enjoy.

Microsoft’s site is here.

Tags: microsoft, telescope, worldwide, universe, tour, virtual, zoom, pan