Explore space from your laptop.
Even the most amateur of astronomers would tell you that the best way to view the night sky is outdoors. But if you live in a city with too much light pollution or it's a cloudy night, you don't have to put your astrophysics curiosities on hold.
Microsoft has created a Worldwide Telescope (WWT) application for Bing Maps. It works with Silverlight, which means I can hear you groaning through the Interwebs. (Your non-Silverlight alternative, of course, is Google Sky.)
Here's a visual tour of how to access the WWT app:
Go to Bing Maps and click on the Apps option in the menu at the bottom of the left sidebar:
The Worldwide Telescope app is the second one on the first row:
The app launches various options back into the left sidebar:
Click your selection. Within that selection look for "fly to" to load the sky map:
There are various circles to click and learn more about what's out there:
