It seems information about Google’s new astronomy service leaked out well ahead of time.
Over the weekend, newspapers revealed that Google’s new mobile phone application, Star Droid, would help amateur astronomers identify stars and planets.
Users simply point their camera phone at the night sky and GPS technology is used to pinpoint their position and relay details of the stars and planets they are looking at.
Today, Google was not prepared to divulge any details at all about the new service.
Google spokeswoman Laura Scott would only say that not all the information published by newspapers over the weekend was entirely accurate.
‘Watch this space,’ she told us.
However, doubt has already been raised over Star Droid’s effectiveness.
Carolin Crawford, from Cambridge University’s institute of astronomy, told the Sunday Times: ‘It will be interesting to see how much the camera on the phones will be able to pick up. The night sky is pretty crowded. Whereas Venus can appear bright in the sky, many stars appear very dimly and may be difficult for a camera phone to spot.’
