By now you've probably heard the announcements about Google Sky - the new module in Google Earth. If not, the videos below will bring you up to speed.

It's certainly a step in the right direction and I applaud anything that brings astronomy and an awareness of the night sky to a wider audience. But what's presented falls short of what any decent planetarium software can provide in terms of what's above your head at any given time and date.

Where it has put a foot right is with the inclusion of Hubble images (in their correct positions in the sky. There's more information on that in this Hubble News Release.

The Google folks are smart people and every project has to start somewhere. Right now Google Sky is more of a cool photo album than a real piece of interactive software. It's fun to play with - for a few minutes. About all you can really do is click on things to see pretty images.

Maybe Google are looking for feedback on what direction to proceed with this project. If they decide to go down the planetarium route, providing charts for what's in the sky at any time as seen from any given locvation on the planet, then it will begin to match what's availabale in current software and begin to realize its potential.

You'll find Google Sky here.

These videos give more information on what Google Sky is about and how you can use it to explore: