Quick Start

Click the button below to download the NRAO Radio Skymark feed for all available NRAO Radio Skymarks. Open the resulting *.kml file in Google Earth. Click on the skymark and follow the instructions given in the balloon. For more details, see How to use the NRAO Radio Skymark feed and How to view Radio Skymarks on your computer.

Table of Contents

• Featured Radio Skymarks
• How to view Radio Skymarks on your computer
• How to use the NRAO Radio Skymark feed
• Questions about Google Earth?
• Known Issues
• Notes

Featured Radio Skymarks

Birth and Death in the Milky Way Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI and Rick White (STScI), Bob Becker (IGPP/LLNL & UC-Davis), David Helfand (Columbia) Download / View in Google Sky

Fornax A, NGC 1316 Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI and J. M. Uson (NRAO) Download / View in Google Sky

Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI and J. M. Uson (NRAO) Download / View in Google Sky

The Antennae, NGC 4038/4039 Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI and J. Hibbard Download / View in Google Sky

Messier 33, Triangulum Galaxy Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI, NOAO/AURA/NSF, and T. Rector Download / View in Google Sky

Cassiopeia A, Supernova Remnant Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI Download / View in Google Sky

Messier 81/82 Interactions Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI/NSF, K. Chynoweth, G. Langston, B. Saxton, and Digital Sky Survey Download / View in Google Sky

How to view Radio Skymarks on your computer

Download a printer-friendly PDF of these instructions.

1. Get Google Earth. Visit http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html for a free download for Windows, Mac, or Linux.
2. Download NRAO Radio Skymarks to your computer. Go to http://archive.cv.nrao.edu/skymark and click on the "Download" button next to the Skymark you wish to view. (Take note of the directory on your computer where you save your Skymarks.)
3. If your web browser does not automatically open Skymarks within the Google Earth application, then launch Google Earth from your desktop (or wherever you installed it). Go to File > Open and browse to your down loaded Skymarks. A skymark is a *.kmz file.
4. Confirm that you would like to switch to sky if Google Earth asks. You can also switch to sky view through the program menu within Google Earth at View > Switch to Sky.
5. In Sky view, you can fly directly to a Skymark location by double-clicking a Skymark in the left-hand Places menu.
6. When closing the Google Earth application, it may notify you that you have unsaved items in your "Temporary Places" folder. We recommend that you click "Yes" - that means next time you open Google Earth, your NRAO Skymarks will be available to you in "My Places".

How to use the NRAO Radio Skymark feed

1. Get the feed. One-Click Download: NRAO Radio Skymark feed for Google Sky
   
   
2. Open the feed in Google Earth.
   (See How to view Radio Skymarks on your computer for instructions).
3. Click on the feed's hyperlink in the Places menu.
   
4. Follow the instructions of the on-screen balloon.
   
5. Please be patient. The feed may take several moments to load (especially when first loaded into Google Earth), depending on network traffic.
   
6. The file which you download will not update often, though you should check back periodically. The feed will allow you see the latest NRAO Radio Skymarks as they are available.

Questions about Google Earth?

Visit http://earth.google.com/faq.html

Google Earth requires an internet connection for use.

Known Issues

• disappearing image overlay - a skymark image doesn't load in Google Earth with no error reported
• Image overlays in Google Earth can be somewhat memory intensive, and some systems fail to load a number of skymarks at once. This can be resolved by closing/unchecking unused skymarks in the Places menu. If the problem persists, restart the Google Earth application.
• There's more information about opening overlays in the Google Earth User Guide
• If an error is reported by the program, refer to the Google Earth online documentation.
• indefinite wait for loading of feed - upon loading a feed into Google Earth it hangs without returning any results
• A feed usually loads very quickly on the NRAO server (try loading the main feed directly into your browser), so an unresponsive feed in Google Earth might be caused locally to your machine.
• A simple workaround is to open the skymark properties in Google Earth, which often brings an instant refresh to the feed. Right-click the feed in Google Earth, and click Properties, then click OK.
• If an error is reported by the program, refer to the Google Earth online documentation.

Notes

This page is based on Google Earth version 4.2.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

Google Earth is a trademark of Google. The NRAO is not commercially affiliated with Google.

The NRAO Radio Skymark products are brought to you through collaboration of NRAO End to End (e2e) Operations and NRAO Education and Public Outreach (EPO), with technical lead Ron DuPlain, NRAO Charlottesville.