A few months ago I posted a Google Earth add-on which used a large 3D model hemisphere with a full-sky cloud image plastered on the inside to create fake sky backdrops.  Turns out, with a little bit of KML magic you can do pretty much the same thing with the new panoramic Photo Overlay feature in Google Earth 4.2.
This is a PhotoOverlay sky [...]

Digressing slightly from the real-sized planets, I figured there might be some mileage in creating diagrams showing orbital positions around the Sun to run alongside normal Google Sky planetary motion animations. This way you can see more clearly how positions relate to one another, giving some insight into why and when retrograde / prograde motion occurs.
What I’ve done is put together a [...]

This is a time animated version of the real-sized planets file for Google Sky I mentioned yesterday. The Animation covers 60 days starting from 30 days previously. Position intervals are at 2 hours, and the file automatically updates once a day.
Animated Planets (Google Earth v4.2 Required)
First time it plays the file has to load in [...]

Seeing as there are several Google Earth (Sky) KML files all showing live planet positions using Icons, I thought it might be interesting to try something with Image Overlays instead.  One advantage of this method is being able to use detailed photographs, creating the illusion of zoomable objects in the same way as the stars and galaxies in the Google Sky base imagery.
The following [...]

This is a belated follow-up to my bouncing globe in Google Earth animation.  With forty-nine additional globes , and bounce collisions dampened to introduce some variety.
Here’s a video showing it running in real time in Google Earth…

…and the KML:
Bouncing Globes (1MB,  Google Earth v4.2 Required)
CAUTION.  The file is heavy on resources.  Depending on your system it may take up to a few minutes [...]