Google Earth Sky
This is the sky dome 3D model I wrote about yesterday, transferred into Google Earth - I see Frank Taylor at the Google Earth Blog beat me to this :) You can read his article here.
From inside, the model provides a simple way of giving Google Earth a cloudy sky backdrop over a limited area. As shown in the picture.
The dome is 50km in diameter (several times larger than the SketchUp original), and hooked into Google Earth through a PHP script, to make simple repositioning possible. Download the file here:
Skydome (~230kB)
Viewing Tips
- After downloading the file, direct the GE view to wherever you want the dome to be placed (this is more accurate if you look straight down), and switch on the file.
- To locate it elsewhere, do the same thing to reposition the GE view, but this time right click on the Skydome Networklink (under Places) and select refresh.
- Unless you have a Space Navigator I recommend switching to flight control mode (CTRL+g) to make looking upwards possible.
(Edit 2007-06-25: Based on Barry Hunter’s suggestion in the comments I’ve changed the Networklink so the positioning now centres exactly on the mid-point of the view.)
Posted By James On June 24th, 2007.
Comments: 5
Comments
Comment from Barry Hunter
Time: June 25, 2007, 1:45 pm
Very Nice!
One refinement is to use the tag to make the model center in view, better.
http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kml_tags_21.html#viewformat
I did this, which requires no modification to your PHP 
……………….
BBOX=[lookatLon],[lookatLat],[lookatLon],[lookatLat]
http://www.barnabu……….
but will require people to download the network link again.
Comment from Barry Hunter
Time: June 25, 2007, 1:49 pm
Oh, forgot WP doesnt like tags, should be:
……………….
<Url>
<viewFormat>BBOX=[lookatLon],[lookatLat],[lookatLon],[lookatLat]</viewFormat>
<href>http://www.barnabu……….
(if this doesnt work, see http://www.nearby.org.uk/google/skydome-nl.kml )
Comment from Debbie
Time: August 22, 2007, 12:14 pm
This really isn’t responding particularly to what’s here, but i want to know how to get to the new Google Sky that I heard about on the news this morning so that it can be downloaded while it’s free. Thank you!
Pingback from New Google Sky
Time: August 24, 2007, 1:40 pm
[...] rocketed. So for anyone wondering where to get the proper ‘Google Earth Sky’ (and not my add-on), it’s included in the latest version of the free Google Earth which can be downloaded from: [...]
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