Awesome Astronomy

     Perhaps one of my favorite sciences is Astronomy.  There is truly something magnificent about the heavens.  Their presence is always a constant reminder to me of the grandeur of God.  Truly, if He made these, how much more glorious must He be?  It also serves to remind me of my "smallness" leaving my value not in self but what He gives me.  My level of fascination with the heavens only grows the more I look at them and study them.  I am sure the same is true for many others.  Like many other things, the digital revolution can bring these brilliant lights into a direct interaction that in the classroom should be enveloping for any student, classroom or teacher.  I like interactivity in my classroom (as many may gather from these posts) and one of the best free programs is Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope.  Despite its clear commitment to a non-Biblical worldview --they try real hard to give "Nature" a lot of credit-- it can still be used for its content and for comparison.  It isn't like those from a Godless perspective should be allowed to hijack the glory of God's creation, right?    By the way, "Nature" doesn't seem to ask for credit very much.  I have never personally heard it say "thanks" for noticing --I have heard Nature's Call though!  Perhaps many of these scientist are just answering "the call".  I should be more understanding then.  I digress.

     From WorldWide Telescope:

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.

     This program is especially enveloping with SmartBoard presentations and can be applied to many different course subjects (depending on applications.)  There are lots of other programs out there that do similar things (some I will link and review later) but the image content within WorldWide is truly superior.  Install and marvel!  Just don't forget (with all deference to Bill Gates) that the program is marvelous but its subject is so because it wasn't made by Microsoft.  It was created by God and that is truly why it is so amazing!

Roy Gould: WorldWide Telescope