Google Adds Satellite Imagery for the World 551
draevil writes "Google has hugely expanded the areas of the world that it covers with satellite imagery. Egypt, Iraq, mainland Europe and the UK have all now got satellite coverage to a lesser or greater degree. Slashdotters can now go see sights like Buckingham Palace or the Arc de Triomphe from the comfort of their own swivelchairs. Iraq in particular seems to have a large number of high-zoom areas. I just looked up the Baghdad Parade Grounds where Saddam used to take the salute and other towns like Fallujah are also there. Finding landmarks without the map content is a little harder, so what can the Slashdot crowd find?"
Re:First Dupe Post! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Looking around Paris... (Score:3, Informative)
some more interesing objects (Score:5, Informative)
St. Peter in Rome [google.com]
Florence, Duomo [google.com]
Water reservoirs in Sahara [google.com].
Creter of Vesuvius [google.com]
Re:Firefox problems? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Streched Images? (Score:3, Informative)
Satellite view on the other hand uses whatever perspective afforded by the position of the satellite. It isn't always directly overhead, you know.
So they have to translate one perspective onto another.
The real question is, do they get to know where the satellite was when it took each photo in question, or do they arrive at the matrix in some other way?
Eiffel tower, Giza pyramids.. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Streched Images? (Score:2, Informative)
(If you don't know what that is, it's when you take a camera that's completely directly on top of the target area, with a lens as big as what you're taking, so there's no perspective shortening at all.)
They can do it two ways, I guess they either know where the satelite is, or they locate enough points on the photo (ie: manually eyeball feature x) and knowing each point's real world coordinates (ie: feature x is at lat a long b) they can work out the projection / deprojection.
Certainly, the Auckland Harbour Bridge [google.com] would look different - ie: not like a flat road in the water - if it was anything but an orthographic projection.
Re:I Found... (Score:2, Informative)
Yes? [google.com]
I 'found' all the Unesco World Heritage Sites (Score:5, Informative)
Here is the page of Google Maps for World Heritage Sites [templetons.com], and there is also a blog entry for comments and corrections [4brad.com]. Many can be zoomed in on. Enjoy.
Re:some more interesing objects (Score:1, Informative)
Re:UFOs! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:WHERE IS AREA 51???? (Score:3, Informative)
Already done: http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/b/f/bfs124/area
Re:with apologies to Zonk (Score:1, Informative)
This one was built for Napoleon, at the top of his strength. The area then was mostly underdeveloped, and remained so until the mid-1800s.
Though the place is now officially "Place Charles de Gaulle", it started as "Place de l'Étoile" (capital eacute between ' and t, in case Slashcode plays dirty), which is "Star Place", because it shines (of Napoleon's glory) and because tons of roads converge there. Whatever.
Re:Looking around Paris... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Firefox problems? (Score:3, Informative)
In your Options/Preferences dialog, go to Web Features and click the Advanced button next to Enable Javascript. In that dialog, make sure Change Images is selected. That worked for me.
Re:UFOs! (Score:4, Informative)
Rembember, those pics (the higher resolution ones) were made by aircraft, not sattelites, so the depht of field is not that large.
Re:How old are the images? (Score:4, Informative)
Tokyo, Shibuya [google.com]
Also, the Meguro Station got a new cover, which blends in on the old/new edge:
Tokyo, Meguro Station [google.com]
Re:Looking around Washington, DC... (Score:1, Informative)
If you know they're there, any would-be attackers know it.
Besides, showing those missiles would be a serious deterrent.
perhaps they could even be identified.
Unless they're of North Korean origin, there is no problem with that.
Please stop this paranoid nonsense. Terrorist attacks kill far less people than smoking misguided military adventures by a rogue state somewhere in North America that isn't Canada or Mexico, or drunk driving. Outside of Iraq terrorism is a non-problem. (And inside Iraq it's a small problem compared to the problem of the military occupation)
Searching with long/lat and Abu Ghurayb (Score:4, Informative)
Abu Ghurayb is 3318'58"N 04411'54"E
So you can see that here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=33%C2%B018'58%22N+0
Re:First to find.... (Score:1, Informative)
Here http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=48.218275,11.62487
Here http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=48.132391,11.54914
Fairly recent pictures for the money, I would say.
Undocumented secret features! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:UFOs! (Score:1, Informative)
Weather balloons are made of a material that has a pearlescent cool white color, and are going to seem much larger in aircraft-based images because of their higher balloon-altitude/aircraft-altitude ratio.
I saw one of these from the ground once (for whatever reason, it failed to reach its maximum altitude, and got stuck around 10-20 thousand feet), and mistook it for a UFO until I got some binoculars and saw the tehers and instrument package underneath it.
Re:Alphabet Soup! The NSA..... (Score:3, Informative)
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=palmdale,ca&ll=34.6
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=norfolk,va&ll=36.95
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=norfolk,va&ll=36.95
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=palmdale,ca&ll=34.6
Re:How old are the images? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Firefox problems? (Score:1, Informative)
Tools > Options > Web Features
ensure Javascript is checked and click Advanced
The key option is "Change Images". If this is not checked, you'll get a gray box every time.
-spl
Re:First to find.... (Score:3, Informative)
there. You missed them by a few miles.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=microsoft&ll=47.639
Re:Looking around Washington, DC... (Score:3, Informative)
Knowing that the White House is guarded by AA batteries is not the same as knowing what types of missiles they have and where they're located.
Compare the situation to a grocery or department store -- you know there are a lot of black domes on the ceiling that could be hiding cameras, but you don't know how many actually are or where they're pointing. Telling people that there are cameras present is a deterence, but letting them know exactly where the cameras are gives too much information to would-be shoplifters.
Please stop this paranoid nonsense. Terrorist attacks kill far less people than smoking misguided military adventures by a rogue state somewhere in North America that isn't Canada or Mexico, or drunk driving.
Less likely, but still non-zero. When you're doing risk analysis, if something has only a 1% chance of happening, but the consequences would be catastrophic, it's prudent to take precautions. And keeping the military defenses of the Chief Executive's mansion secret is a perfectly sensible precaution.
Re:WHERE IS AREA 51???? (Score:3, Informative)
That is farmland. The fields are circular for irrigation reasons, and yes, they look like that from the sky.
Re:WHERE IS AREA 51???? (Score:3, Informative)
Someone apparently hasn't flown cross-country.
The green is plants. They're circular [lenntech.com] because there's a irrigation machine like this [ksu.edu] spinning around on a central pivot.
Area 51 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Maree Man (Score:3, Informative)