My space (page two)

A look at the best ways to explore the cosmos in Sky for Google Earth

Look at the sky above your house

Everyone does the same thing when they first load up Google Earth – they look at their own house. In Sky you can see what’s above it right now.

1. First, open up Google Earth. Then in the search bar in the top left, enter your postcode or your street address.
2. Once you’ve had enough of looking at your roof, go to the View menu and select Switch to Sky.
Switch on 'Constellation boundaries' in the Backyard Astronomy layer to see how the constellations divide up the sky.
3. The view will switch round so that you’re looking out to the same stars you’d see if you went outside your house at night and looked up. Which is probably another good activity to put on your list, come to think of it.
4. Sometimes when you switch over to Sky, it will zoom all the way in on something rather than just show you the sky. If this happens, just go back up to the top left and double-click on your location underneath the search bar. After Sky flies you over, zoom back out and you’ll see what the sky above you looks like.
5. While we’re zoomed out, now’s a good time to watch the motion of the planets across the sky. In the top right is a time slider. Press the play button and you’ll see an animated solar system follow its orbit across the sky. You might have to hunt around the sky for them a bit, but they’re there.

How did people see the stars hundreds of years ago? Next page >