See the Stars (from everywhere!)

...or captured from multiple stopping points across South Africa and the western United States, then stitched together to create a gigantic hi-res zoomable 360-degree panoramic. Wired Magazine reports on the work of 28-year-old astrophotographer Nick Risinger, who starting from March of 2010 began a trek with his father across approximately 60,000 miles to gather the images. (37,000 total for the final result, using 6 astronomical cameras.)

His final result is kind of like a Google Earth celestial umbrella hat. And also much brighter than previous sky surveys; Risinger's cameras shot between 20 and 70 exposures, rotating with the earth, that captured in three color wavelengths, compared to prior surveys that only shot in red and blue.

View the zoomable version here), and, if you're even remotely interested in astro-capture, expect to lose about half an hour clicking through obsessively.

(Image via Wired.)