Google's new toy that gives amateur astronomers a view of the stars

Using free software from Google Earth, amateur stargazers can now bring an astronaut's view of galaxies and planets to their computer screens.

At the click of a button, they will be able to zoom millions of miles into space to scan through 100million stars and 200million galaxies as seen from the Earth.

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Spiral galaxy M81, 12 million light years from Earth and which can be seen above Wimbledon

Through the free search engine they can learn about constellations, the Moon, planets and the life of a star by viewing high-resolution images.

These are beamed from a number of sky-mapping organisations including the Hubble space telescope and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre.

The program, called Sky, features the same navigation tools as Google Earth which uses satellite pictures that zoom to street level.

Each of the images provided by some of the world's top scientific and academic centres will be updated regularly so users can continuously monitor stars, galaxies and nebulae.

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Another screen grab from the new application shows exactly what you would find in the sky above you

Eventually, Google hopes that amateur astronomers will be able to post their own images on the site when they have captured something exceptional happening in the heavens.

Dr Carol Christian, of the Space Telescope Science Institute which provides images for the project, said: "Never before has a roadmap of the entire sky been made so readily available."

To view the program, users will need to download the latest version of Google Earth which can be found at www.earth.google.com.

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The sky above the Daily Mail's offices seen using Google Sky