Review: Google Sky Map...We're livin' in the future!

We went on a family flashlight walk last night after dinner.  There were a surprising number of stars visisble, which gave me the perfect excuse to try out Google's Sky Map application for my Droid.  Google Sky Map uses both your location -- ideally computed from GPS signals -- and the phone's orientation sensors to perform some funky magic: it displays on screen the section of the sky you're at which you're looking, with stars and constellations labelled.  As you move the phone around, you see different parts of the sky.  It's a magic window!



I've never been an astronomy buff, but I remember being fascinated by H. A. Rey's "The Stars" when I was little.  This application brings back some of that fascination, and I hope I can use it to teach the kids as they get older.