Google maps and satelite images

[Humphrey]

A heck of alot better than mapquest. Works faster and the online maps arte alot less cluttered.
The directions are very, very cool. satelite map image actually overlatys the blue (follow this line) over the roads on ther satelite map!


Plus getting a real satelite image to go along with it is prety damn cool. Those of my current residence are less than a year old!

http://maps.google.com/

[Candy]

United Airlines, World Head Quarters! (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1200+e+algonquin+elk+grove+village,il&ll=42 .034614,-87.953839&spn=0.007124,0.026608&t=k&hl=en) Here's where I work. It's the whole area (triangle) where the bubble thing is sitting. I work in the biggest building. 8)

[tmosher]

United Airlines, World Head Quarters! (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1200+e+algonquin+elk+grove+village,il&ll=42 .034614,-87.953839&spn=0.007124,0.026608&t=k&hl=en) Here's where I work. It's the whole area (triangle) where the bubble thing is sitting. I work in the biggest building. 8)

What's that to the south on the other side of the road? Oil tanks?

[paulie jay]

Wow, that's really great! I see it's a beta version and I can't wait until they include the rest of the world!

[Lycus]

Wow, that's really great! I see it's a beta version and I can't wait until they include the rest of the world!
You can see most of the world with the satellite option (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-25.576172,136.318359&spn=44.384766,64.863281&t=k&h l=en), but you can only zoom in about 1/3 of the way, right now.

[Candy]

United Airlines, World Head Quarters! (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1200+e+algonquin+elk+grove+village,il&ll=42 .034614,-87.953839&spn=0.007124,0.026608&t=k&hl=en) Here's where I work. It's the whole area (triangle) where the bubble thing is sitting. I work in the biggest building. 8)

What's that to the south on the other side of the road? Oil tanks?
Yeah, I think it is. Dang, I sure hope I'm not at work if something ever happens to those puppies! I've never noticed them. You can't see them from the road while driving. :o

[Swift]

I can see my house. 8)
The map part is very fast, both the zoom and the scroll.

[paulie jay]

Sydney From Above (http://tinyurl.com/67llo)

Sadly this is as close to Sydney as we can get at the moment. If you look really close you can see me waving...

[wedgebert]

I can see my current apartment, but the imagery for the subdivision I'm moving into is a couple of years out of date.

It does have my workplace at EBSCO Industries (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=5724+Highway+280+E+,+Birmingham+,+AL+35242) though. It's to the left of the marker. I work in the wing just south of the "V" shaped building with the blue roof.

[Jim]

Neat, but it puts my house three doors down and across the street.

[Candy]

Neat, but it puts my house three doors down and across the street. It put in the old city and zipcode for my company.

[W.F. Tomba]

It doesn't have a satellite image of my town that shows individual buildings (or even streets) very clearly, but still pretty cool. And the map feature is excellent, too.

[Grendl]

That's nifty, but the image is old. You can see my apartment perfectly, the pools and the cars parked in front of it, though no details of the cars.

It doesn't show the new tollway and only the ground breaking of Sam's Club, so it's a photo around late 2001. Arrghh, the trees wouldn't even look the same now. What's cool is that I can arrow straight down to my job 1.6 miles away!

For Houstonians, it is real easy to see my apartment from Transco Tower (really Williams Tower now). With 7X35 binoculars, you can stand on the observation deck and see me wave to you very clearly. LOL.

Cool stuff, Humphrey, thanks.

[Moose]

Sweet! It pinpointed both my house and my office.

[um3k]

I don't think it had satellite images when I was looking at it a few days ago. :o

EDIT: Actually, that may have been yesterday! :o :o

[Lycus]

That might be a cool game. Take a screenshot of a satellite image, post it, and see if anyone can guess where it's from.

[Nicolas]

That might be a cool game. Take a screenshot of a satellite image, post it, and see if anyone can guess where it's from.

"earth!" :)

Over Europe, one can only zoon to a level where the whole of Belgium (and more) fits in one screen, so there it won't be that hard :).

[Normandy6644]

That's so cool!

[Brady Yoon]

Try doing this: find your house or place of residence, and zoom out as far as you can and see if you can still see the area around it.

I live in Anaheim Hills, which is maybe 30-40 miles away from the ocean as the crow flies, and I zoomed out far enough so that I could see the ocean. I could still see the hill behind my house! Cool stuff.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=46.873169,-121.766968&spn=0.170975,0.253372&t=k&hl=en

An easy one to start. :)

[Nicolas]

without zooming out, I guessed Mt St Helens.

maybe we'd better make a screenshot, so there's no way one can see the location by zooming out :).

As the whole of Belgium is the smallest zoom level at my location, I can't pinpoint my house :). Where I live in the Netherlands can be seen on the famous "gigapixel photo" (somehwere on the web).

[Brady Yoon]

without zooming out, I guessed Mt St Helens.

maybe we'd better make a screenshot, so there's no way one can see the location by zooming out :).

As the whole of Belgium is the smallest zoom level at my location, I can't pinpoint my house :). Where I live in the Netherlands can be seen on the famous "gigapixel photo" (somehwere on the web).

Good guess. That was really close.

Think lots of glaciers though. :P

[Nicolas]

Mount Rainier

I found it by searching serious mountains in the USA having lots of glaciers on the web 8).

[Lycus]

Here, I got easy one. Thumbnailed:

http://img205.exs.cx/img205/8228/a0hy.th.jpg (http://img205.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img205&image=a0hy.jpg)

[Donnie B.]

It seems I live in the woods somewhere on the other side of my neighbor's house... :o

Pretty cool, though. The pic of my neighborhood is a bit strange, perhaps taken from an odd angle or late on a sunny afternoon. But why does my (round) pool come out looking like a perfect rectangle?

[A'a]

Here, I got easy one. Thumbnailed:

http://img205.exs.cx/img205/8228/a0hy.th.jpg (http://img205.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img205&image=a0hy.jpg)

Why that would be LAX.

[Lycus]

Yep.

ImageShack seems to be good choice to use with the screenshots.

[Brady Yoon]

Mount Rainier

I found it by searching serious mountains in the USA having lots of glaciers on the web 8).

Cool! When my family and I went to Washington on a vacation, we went to Mount Rainier, it was literally Paradise... :)

The glaciers there have some relevance to what I'm studying right now too.

Try this one.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=41.388245,-122.198181&spn=0.170975,0.253372&t=k&hl=en

[ngc3314]

A heck of alot better than mapquest. Works faster and the online maps arte alot less cluttered.
The directions are very, very cool. satelite map image actually overlatys the blue (follow this line) over the roads on ther satelite map!


Plus getting a real satelite image to go along with it is prety damn cool. Those of my current residence are less than a year old!

http://maps.google.com/

Now that is a fun time sink. Better than Terraserver, even back in the old days when the Spin-2 images came up and I could grab them off the screen. (Usng Irfanview for that at the moment). Looked at house, former domiciles, former hangouts, then on to find Kitt Peak (excellent), Lick, VLA, and McDonald (so-so), and Arecibo (not nearly as cool as Terraserver shot). Looks like they have done some projection of off-nadir (i.e. oblique) images, so vertical structures can look tilted. Shuttle pads at KSC are quite nice, Meteor Crater highly mediocre. Both the real and facsimile Saturn Vs in Huntsville are outdoors and easy to find.

Anybody know if they're continuing ingest of images so that poor-resolution areas will improve at some point? I know, crabbing about beta versions...

[Dark Helmet]

Go look at washington DC, parts of the images, at rull res, are blurry/pixelated!

[Humphrey]

Go look at washington DC, parts of the images, at rull res, are blurry/pixelated!

Thats simple. The Alien mothership at that point passed infront of the lense and caused the focus to change directly before they took the snapshot.

That and you have to hide the building of the 100' high statue of the Alien Overlord, Bob.

[Jim]

Here, I got easy one. Thumbnailed:

http://img205.exs.cx/img205/8228/a0hy.th.jpg (http://img205.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img205&image=a0hy.jpg)

Why that would be LAX.

So, where's Heather Locklear?

[tlbs101]

I zoomed into my house -- a very recent image BTW, definitely after 9/3/2004. But... I don't recognize the car parked in front of my house. uh oh.... Lucy you got some 'splainin' to do.


Brad Yoon: Would that be Mt. Shasta? I had my suspicions before zooming out.

[Humphrey]

I zoomed into my house -- a very recent image BTW, definitely after 9/3/2004. But... I don't recognize the car parked in front of my house. uh oh.... Lucy you got some 'splainin' to do.

Ohhhh... a new hobby! Googlestoking!

[Lycus]

Well, that's where my Wham-O went. It's been on the roof for 15 years!

[Candy]

I zoomed into my house -- a very recent image BTW, definitely after 9/3/2004. But... I don't recognize the car parked in front of my house. uh oh.... Lucy you got some 'splainin' to do.


Brad Yoon: Would that be Mt. Shasta? I had my suspicions before zooming out.
I wish someone would park their car in front of my house. :wink:

[tlbs101]

Actually the state of vehicles in front of my house on the day the satellite flew over and took the picture was definitely not normal, but I do know whose car is parked there -- it's one of my wife's girlfriend's cars. My wife's car is missing from the scene, so obviously they were out-and-about (as they do, regularly).

Still, that was an awful lot of information obtained from that one satellite photo. Based on what is shown -- we can probably narrow down the exact day the photo was taken!.

There was a big article yesterday in one of the local newspapers about the new Google satellite images. Some were complaining about an invasion of their privacy. From this experience, now, I can sympathize with these folks.

I still think it is a fantastic service and I give kudos to Google for putting this access up on the net for free. =D>

I would really like to "explore" some of the rest of the world, though, not just North America.

[Humphrey]

Invasion of privacy? It cant see into your home, it sees only what every average person with a pair of eyes on the street can see.

Well thinking more i can accept invassion of privacy in your backyard. I can see that.

[goes to look in people backyards looking for some foolish busness....mmuuahahahahha] :-P

[Lycus]

Hey, what's this?

LINK (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2064-fm,smithville,+tx+78957&ll=30.081854,-97.139397&spn=0.084801,0.125313&t=k&hl=en)

[Candy]

Hey, what's this?

LINK (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2064-fm,smithville,+tx+78957&ll=30.081854,-97.139397&spn=0.084801,0.125313&t=k&hl=en)
Crop Letters! :o

[mickal555]

Here's brissie(I think) close as I can go... (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=sydney&ll=-34.892578,151.303711&sll=-27.905273,147.832031&spn=2.686157,4.053955&sspn=10 .744629,16.215820&t=k&hl=en)

[cyswxman]

Darn! Poor resolution where I'm at! :evil:

[Nicolas]

I can show you the whole of Belgium on sat, but nothing smaller... :(

[Maksutov]

With the satellite images, I got to see why my neighbors down the road a piece put up a big fence...it's to hide their new pool. :)

[Maksutov]

I zoomed into my house -- a very recent image BTW, definitely after 9/3/2004. But... I don't recognize the car parked in front of my house. uh oh.... Lucy you got some 'splainin' to do.


Brad Yoon: Would that be Mt. Shasta? I had my suspicions before zooming out.
I wish someone would park their car in front of my house. :wink:
But you don't have a house, you have a condo. It's hard to park in front of a specific unit that's a complex with shared parking places.

Or do you have a garage? If so, then someone parking in front might be more of a nuisance than anything else. :wink:

[Candy]

Or do you have a garage? If so, then someone parking in front might be more of a nuisance than anything else. :wink:
I have a garage attached. I call it the Candy Cave. No one see's me coming or going. I whip the Candy Mobile in and out at odd hours of the day and night. The only time you will see me is in the Summer laying out on the Balcony. 8)

[Nicolas]

Is there any object in your life where you don't pun "Candy" in? :D

By the way: Candy, balcony...balcandy? 8-[

[Fram]

Is there any object in your life where you don't pun "Candy" in? :D

By the way: Candy, balcony...balcandy? 8-[

Nicolas, we do have a separate pun thread, you know [-X :P

[Candy]

Is there any object in your life where you don't pun "Candy" in? :D

By the way: Candy, balcony...balcandy? 8-[

Nicolas, we do have a separate pun thread, you know [-X :P
Where have I read this before? :lol:

[Nicolas]

On topic: is there any info if and when they will increase the resolution of the satellite images (in parts of the world)?

[mickal555]

Like Australia?

[Lycus]

On topic: is there any info if and when they will increase the resolution of the satellite images (in parts of the world)?
Nothing specific. They just say that there's "more locations coming soon," and that "many more improvements are coming."

You can probably ask them specific questions about its development through the feedback page (http://www.google.com/support/maps/bin/request.py).

[kucharek]

Crazy Texans (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Dallas+TX&ll=32.780553,-96.802576&spn=0.005783,0.007918&t=k&hl=en)

[Nicolas]

I don't feel too well... :D

[um3k]

Crazy Texans (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Dallas+TX&ll=32.780553,-96.802576&spn=0.005783,0.007918&t=k&hl=en)
(almost) ROFL!

[Humphrey]

Crazy Texans (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Dallas+TX&ll=32.780553,-96.802576&spn=0.005783,0.007918&t=k&hl=en)
(almost) ROFL!i dont get it....

[Nicolas]

Look at the "very natural" perspective of that photo combination. Now translate it to a single perspective. They build crazy towers in texas!! :D

[Humphrey]

Gah. i still dont see it. All i see is possibly something that looks like a male apendage.

[Nicolas]

I don't think you need to see anything. Just the perspective which makes the towers look like they're on very strage angles hanging towards each other and even against each other. (did I miss something? 8-[ )

[sarongsong]

Hey, what's this?

LINK (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2064-fm,smithville,+tx+78957&ll=30.081854,-97.139397&spn=0.084801,0.125313&t=k&hl=en)"... Did you know: "Luecke", (or "Lücke") is actually a meaningful German word which stands for "gap", "loophole", "empty space", "void"..."
http://www.shreddies.org/gmaps/2005/04/08/luecke/feed/
(some kind of 'Parsing Error' for this site, using Firefox; had to use Opera to access it.)

[tmosher]

I don't think you need to see anything. Just the perspective which makes the towers look like they're on very strage angles hanging towards each other and even against each other. (did I miss something? 8-[ )

I don't think it's the perspective. The shadows of the various buildings are not consistent depending on which side of the image you're looking at.

Those to the left of center were taken at one time during the day (i.e., before noon) and those to the right appear to be taken a couple of hours after local noon.

I can assure you, the buildings don't tilt that much in Dallas (although there are more than few in this county who are definitely a few bubbles off center).

[um3k]

They just have a funny way of stitching the images together.

[Maksutov]

I don't think you need to see anything. Just the perspective which makes the towers look like they're on very strage angles hanging towards each other and even against each other. (did I miss something? 8-[ )

I don't think it's the perspective. The shadows of the various buildings are not consistent depending on which side of the image you're looking at.[edit]
Inconsistent shadows, eh?

So, this proves that the Google Map site is actually a hoax, all part of a greater conspiracy to prevent individuals from knowing what the world really looks like!

I think I'll start a web page... 8)

[Humphrey]

Doh! hehe. umm ignore what i think it looks like then. :-P

[Crazieman]

Plane in mid-flight just a little west of Wichita, KS (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.656198,-97.615070&spn=0.007821,0.010450&t=k&hl=en)

You might want to zoom in :)

[Nicolas]

I don't think you need to see anything. Just the perspective which makes the towers look like they're on very strage angles hanging towards each other and even against each other. (did I miss something? 8-[ )

I don't think it's the perspective. The shadows of the various buildings are not consistent depending on which side of the image you're looking at.

Those to the left of center were taken at one time during the day (i.e., before noon) and those to the right appear to be taken a couple of hours after local noon.

I can assure you, the buildings don't tilt that much in Dallas (although there are more than few in this county who are definitely a few bubbles off center).

Well, the light is obvisously different as well, but look at the persepective where both images meet! That surely is a perspective problem, right? I mean on 2 towers standing right next to each other, you see opposite sides -and you see them very well.

[Candy]

Plane in mid-flight just a little west of Wichita, KS (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.656198,-97.615070&spn=0.007821,0.010450&t=k&hl=en)

You might want to zoom in :) That is freaking awesome. For some reason, it looks like it's missing an engine or something. :o

[edited]

[sarongsong]

"..."Part of it is that we collect so much imagery that a lot of times no eyes have seen a lot of this stuff..."
Surprises Lurk in Satellite Snaps (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,67190,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1) 

[Dark Helmet]

Wow, this is impressive, the sattellite views of the NTS:

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.093964,-116.048584&spn=0.251999,0.341263&t=k&hl=en

[sarongsong]

So what's 'NTS'?

[Lycus]

So what's 'NTS'?
Nevada Test Site. Gradually zoom in at Dark Helmet's link.

[sarongsong]

Thanks, Lycus, I seem to be drowning in acronyms lately. #-o

[tmosher]

Plane in mid-flight just a little west of Wichita, KS (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.656198,-97.615070&spn=0.007821,0.010450&t=k&hl=en)

You might want to zoom in :) That is freaking awesome. For some reason, it looks like it's missing an engine or something. :o

[edited]

Did you notice the after image above and to the right of the Boeing 757 (well, that's what it looks like to me).

[Fortis]

Plane in mid-flight just a little west of Wichita, KS (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.656198,-97.615070&spn=0.007821,0.010450&t=k&hl=en)

You might want to zoom in :) That is freaking awesome. For some reason, it looks like it's missing an engine or something. :o

[edited]

Did you notice the after image above and to the right of the Boeing 757 (well, that's what it looks like to me).
I think that Ikonos, et al, are pushbroom sensors with a bunch of linear arrays, one for each waveband. This means that there is a (short) time interval between each band, as well as a small amount of parallax. I suspect that we are seeing a combinatio of these two effects. (Anyone with more knowledge of the appropriate sensor may want to correct me.)

[pghnative]

Plane in mid-flight just a little west of Wichita, KS (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.656198,-97.615070&spn=0.007821,0.010450&t=k&hl=en)

You might want to zoom in :) That is freaking awesome. For some reason, it looks like it's missing an engine or something. :o

[edited]

Did you notice the after image above and to the right of the Boeing 757 (well, that's what it looks like to me).
I think that Ikonos, et al, are pushbroom sensors with a bunch of linear arrays, one for each waveband. This means that there is a (short) time interval between each band, as well as a small amount of parallax. I suspect that we are seeing a combinatio of these two effects. (Anyone with more knowledge of the appropriate sensor may want to correct me.)

I thought it was just the shadow of the plane. If it was parallax it should affect all parts of the picture. (True, the plane is closer to the satellite than the ground is, but not by that much, percentagewise)

[kucharek]

I thought it was just the shadow of the plane. If it was parallax it should affect all parts of the picture. (True, the plane is closer to the satellite than the ground is, but not by that much, percentagewise)

I guess, it has more to do with time than space. The sensors surely fix all the same point - at different times. And a plane moves - pretty quickly.

[Candy]

I thought it was just the shadow of the plane. If it was parallax it should affect all parts of the picture. (True, the plane is closer to the satellite than the ground is, but not by that much, percentagewise)

I guess, it has more to do with time than space. The sensors surely fix all the same point - at different times. And a plane moves - pretty quickly.

http://home.att.net/~candy.stair/airplane.jpg

That is just so cool! 8)

[pghnative]

I thought it was just the shadow of the plane. If it was parallax it should affect all parts of the picture. (True, the plane is closer to the satellite than the ground is, but not by that much, percentagewise)

I guess, it has more to do with time than space. The sensors surely fix all the same point - at different times. And a plane moves - pretty quickly.I can't tell if you are agreeing or disagreeing.

How many sensors are we talking about? If more than two, then the image can't be the result of sensors reacting at different times. If it were, then there would be as many "afterimages" as there are sensors.

(Plus, the contrails don't move as fast as the plane, so the image cannot be the result of plane's speed.)

[dita]

WOW...this guy went into great detail on the NTS!
http://www.livejournal.com/community/the_unexplained/37956.html#cutid1

[Fortis]

I thought it was just the shadow of the plane. If it was parallax it should affect all parts of the picture. (True, the plane is closer to the satellite than the ground is, but not by that much, percentagewise)

I guess, it has more to do with time than space. The sensors surely fix all the same point - at different times. And a plane moves - pretty quickly.I can't tell if you are agreeing or disagreeing.

How many sensors are we talking about? If more than two, then the image can't be the result of sensors reacting at different times. If it were, then there would be as many "afterimages" as there are sensors.

(Plus, the contrails don't move as fast as the plane, so the image cannot be the result of plane's speed.)
I suspect that the image is pan-sharpened (which is one of their standard products), where you combine a high resolution panchromatic image with a coarser resolution colour image in order to (depending on your point of view) improve the resolution of the colour image, or add colour to the high resolution panchromatic image. (A plain, non-pan-sharpened colour image from Quickbird is sampled at ~2.4 m at best, which to the eye doesn't look consistent with the apparent sampling of the image on Google.)

The image would be consistent with a high-resolution panchromatic image being taken at a slightly different time to the coarse resolution colour image. (The blueish tint to the leading edge and reddish tint to the trailing edge of the blurred aircraft may indicate that you are seeing a similar effect within the colour image, just that the time intervals between red, green, and blue are much shorter.)

Then again, maybe it's just the ghostly chemtrail Mega-sprayer. ;) :)

[Jim]

The comic strip Foxtrot has picked up on this. Visit http://www.ucomics.com/foxtrot/2005/04/18/ and try the week's strips, especially for 4/21! (Yeah, yeah, political... but bipartisan.)

[Lycus]

Website devoted to cataloging Google Maps satellite images:

LINK (http://gmaps.nicj.net/)

[sarongsong]

Florida orb anomaly (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=33409&ll=26.748651,-80.074550&spn=0.005622,0.007875&t=k&hl=en&fc=1)

[Humphrey]

Florida orb anomaly (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=33409&ll=26.748651,-80.074550&spn=0.005622,0.007875&t=k&hl=en&fc=1)Loo ks to me like some ice or debris that got attached or moved infront of the satelite lense.

[01101001]

Florida orb anomaly (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=33409&ll=26.748651,-80.074550&spn=0.005622,0.007875&t=k&hl=en&fc=1)
Yo. Google this ! (http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=21730)

[ToSeek]

Another Google maps oddity (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-16.337013,-71.959763&spn=0.110893,0.158186&t=k&hl=en)

There is a blog (http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/?p=97) associated with this board. :oops: