With great graphics though, it’s easy to become distracted

In this planet mode, you can zoom into the landscape through the collective satellite imagery, or via a panorama mode that covers the Apollo landing sites, Mars Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity, with Curiosity data to be released soon. The planet will then be displayed in a 3D model, much in the same vein as Microsoft Virtual Earth or Google Earth. From here it’s purely up to the user as to where to go next for example, clicking one of the named planet tiles along the bottom of the screen, Earth for instance, will zoom into the planet by way of a pleasing whizz through the outer to inner solar system. The main WWT window comprises of, initially, a confusing wealth of tabs, icons and tiles with the telescope view in the centre portion of the screen displaying our solar system from some distance out. The impressive content comes from the likes of the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA ’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Centre, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and approximately ten other Earth-bound telescopes from around the globe. WWT is a free helping from Microsoft which lets the user view the solar system, universe and all the items within in glorious 3D.

Telescope stellarium