Bing Maps Planetarium To Go Live Today

Bing is soon to introduce a planetarium of sorts within Bing maps via an application built by a Microsoft Architect dubbed “World Wide Telescope.” The way it works is simple: users activate the application, enter street-level view within Bing Maps, and pan the viewfinder to the heavens. What is displayed is notable constellations, celestial bodies, and other interesting sky-objects.

The feature is actually a real-time simulation of the skies above, and therefore can be used to see what stars/bodies are out on any given night, and where they are relative to your location. Pretty brilliant, and we can see this becoming the backyard astronomer’s best friend.

It’s important to note that Google’s already had a similar feature for quite a while, however, that was only within the Google Earth application. Microsoft’s rendition of a localized planetarium works within the end-user’s web browser.

The application is expected to go live some time later today.

[ via Mashable ]