Now Google maps out the night skies for mobile users

Published on Sunday 10 May 2009 23:15

A NEW mobile phone accessory is set to identify stars and planets for amateur astronomers.

Google's Star Droid will enable lovers of the night sky to point their phones up and immediately tell their constellations from their planets.

The GPS (Global Positioning System) software will use existing maps of space to work out a person's location, then attach name tags to stars and planets.

The new move is the latest development in Google's mapping technology, which already includes Google Sky, Google Earth and Google Street View.

Google Sky is made up of a combination of images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Digitised Sky Survey and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Carolin Crawford, of Cambridge University's institute of astronomy, said: "It will be interesting to see how much the camera on the phones will be able to pick up. The night sky is pretty crowded. Whereas Venus can appear bright in the sky, many stars appear very dimly and may be difficult for a camera-phone to spot."

A launch date for the Star Droid has not yet been announced.