Take This Almost-real Tour of Outer Space at TLE in Virtual Second Life

By: Alas Zerbino - TLE Official Blogger

Iwas very young when the Soviets launched Sputnik into space and the world into a whole new race for the moon. I gave it no thought at the time, of course, but 12 years later when I watched on TV the Apollo astronauts take the first walk on the moon, I was mesmerized. And wished I, too, could experience the wonders of being in outer space.

Well, I was not a good candidate for astronaut training – I disliked math and science, and I was afraid of heights. So I gave up on that dream. But it all came back when I discovered the virtual education space exhibits at the TLE Educational Network in Second Life that give me more than just glimpses of what space flight must be like.

So here’s a two-dimensional tour of these 3-D virtual experiences at TLE that are a must-see for anyone fascinated by real space.

I’ll begin on the virtual ground, at the TLE Nautical History & Lighthouses exhibit. I know you’re wondering: What does a sea travel exhibit have to do with space? Well, first, it’s a good reminder that humans have had the urge to explore for all of recorded history. But the main reason I start here is because of the telescope at the top of the lighthouse.

If you’re anxious about jumping right into space travel, you can stay relatively grounded at this exhibit and yet look deep into outer space. (Plus, you can get a nice view of many features of the TLE Interactive World History Museum in SL, which is a large part of this free virtual education campus in Second Life.)

So, you can either fly straight to the top of the lighthouse, or go inside and use the building’s teleporters to get to the rooftop telescope. Then, right-click on the telescope and choose the pie-menu option for “Sit”, and suddenly you’ll be in “mouselook mode” and your screen will be filled with actual images from outer space. You can also click on the telescope for a menu (see above photo) of types of images to view.

Next stop is a similar telescope, but this one is mounted in the TLE Space Observatory – a replica of an actual observatory, but perched high in the virtual sky of Second Life.

When you get to the Space Observatory, you can study the annotated sky map on the inside ceiling, look out through the opening at the virtual sky (which is especially fun if you change your Environment setting on the World menu of the SL viewer to “Midnight”), or “Sit” on the telescope and look through the eyepiece.

For telescopic viewing, move your SL camera so it’s close to the eyepiece, and you’ll get to watch an incredible slideshow of actual close-up image of planets, stars, nebulae, and other celestial bodies.

Ready for more? Time to go to the next stop on my tour of space sites at TLE Educational Network: the TLE Space Dock & History of Space Travel.

Yes, it’s a virtual space docking station launched by TLE into the virtual sky above its Second Life land. One of the first things you notice when you teleport here is how it continually rotates, which gives a real sense of being out there.

The space dock also houses one of TLE’s virtual education exhibits – a timeline of major space exploration milestones, starting with Sputnik 1 on Oct. 4, 1957. Currently the timeline takes you up to October 1975, when the Soviet Venera 9 and 10 sent the first pictures of the surface of Venus to Earth. Two more floors of the spacious docking station await completion of the timeline.

After you’ve learned about the initial decades of space exploration, teleport down to the lower level, for an incredible experience of standing in the midst of the solar system. Watch the moon as it revolves around the Earth, and Earth as it revolves around the sun with all the other planets. See the amazing variances in their paths, speed, and axes – an awesome perspective of how they all relate to each other over the course of their travel through the solar system. It’s amazing they don’t run into each other!

Fourth stop on the tour is an experiential exhibit I’ve written about before: the TLE Virtual Reality Scenes, an exhibit of “surround-view” photographs that give you the sense of actually being there.

Among the choices at this exhibit are eight scenes in the “Star Gazing” category. Each puts you in a different location in space or at the top of the world looking at space.

SL’s mouselook mode is very powerful here. I also suggest that you right-click on the semi-transparent platform and choose “Get in” from the pie menu. This puts you in a sitting position, and now you can hold down your right or left arrow key and watch your avatar and the sky rotate around you.

Ready for the ultimate space experience at TLE? The fifth and final stop of my tour of TLE space sites is the TLE Planetarium.

This virtual experience is so real that it takes my breath away! At the Planetarium, it is as if you were standing alone in space, in the midst of planets and moons that move within inches of you.

Be sure to click on the “yellow star”: Our solar system’s planets will come flying out and move into their proper positions before your eyes!

I saved the TLE Educational Network’s Planetarium for last, in part because once I get here, I hate to leave! I hope you enjoy it, too.