The WorldWide Telescope project from Microsoft Research was announced yesterday at TED. Looks quite impressive. A download will be available in a couple months for free at http://worldwidetelescope.org/.
The app sounds like it’s going to be aimed at virtual tours of space, but I hope as it evolves it goes further. I’d really like to see the idea of “real-time” photos being merged in. So that as a lunar eclipse occurs (visible from wherever on earth) or as a comet passes by–I could jump to a program like this to watch rather than contemplate a 2 hour trip away from city lights to try to get a glimpse of it. I think this could also encourage a lot of amateur photographers if their photos could somehow be melted in too.
Robert Scoble promises a much better demo than the TED attendees got. I look forward to it.