Emily Davidow

New Google Earth beta has been released (free download) with wild textured 3D building features and ability for people to create and share geographic information. Learned all sorts of interesting facts about my own neighborhood. What a fabulous planet we live on! Alas, according to Stephen Hawking, we need to find homes in another star system soon if we’re to survive as a species. So many galaxies… how to choose?

Luckily, we have a new tool for scouting interstellar real estate opportunities: the Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium. This is the gadget I fantasized about while lying on the beach, looking up at the sky and wishing I had paid more attention during astronomy class. Well, actually, I imagined Terminator vision where the data just showed up in my retina, but this is so much better since it doesn’t require any cyborg implants. You can look at anything in the sky through this handheld device and it tells you what you’re looking at and offers related history and mythology. You can also tell it what celestial object you want to look at, and it will direct you to where in the sky you’ll find it. It also gives constellation tours and a list of the night’s greatest hits based on where you are and what time of year it is. Simply wondrous!

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