[meteorite-list] Google Maps

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 7 12:01:08 2005
Message-ID: <425556AF.E93028A3_at_bhil.com>

Hi,

    Google maps is fun, but not terribly useful. I spent a quarter hour
trying to find Manacouagan crater, to duplicate Marc's view, with atlases at
my side to help me, but Google Maps refused to do it without my coughing up
its postal code. Do craters have postal codes?
    I tried Google maps on my own house. I got a map, but no satellite view
-- unavailable says Google. The locator pin icon for my house was in the
right street but in the wrong block of the street.
    I tried Google maps on my store, in another town. Again, I got a map, but
no satellite view. Again, the locator pin icon for my store was in the right
street but the wrong block. Obviously, Google is interpolating locations
from what is probably a postal-type database, without even cross-checking
adjacent block start numbers.
    I reduced the zoom scale and got a satellite view covering 16 square
miles, a great rolling sea of green Midwestern vegetation without a single
visible road, city, or any other mark of man's presence -- it might as well
have been photographed in the year 1800!
    It's a pretty interface and makes a great rolling road map, but it's a
long way from being The Great Eye of God for us to access! It does do a
fantastic job of finding the nearest pizza joint to any location, and that's
just what Google wants it to do. That's what this is all about, you know.
    In the area around my store, there were many pin locator icons referenced
to other local businesses which were also listed on the side by name and with
phone numbers. My business was not among them. Hey, Google, where do I sign
up? (And how much will it cost me?)
    TerraServer, on the other hand, is fantastic. It managed to put my house
in the right block, even though at the wrong end of the block. It showed me
a satellite view at highest resolution that showed a two block by two block
area in which I could see my house and count the windows, despite the fuzzy
grey low-contrast B&W aerial photo.
    It did the same for my store. I tried it for my brother's house in
Louisville, Kentucky, and got a stunning color view with a resolution of
about 2-3 pixels per foot! You could identify cars by year and model, count
mailboxes, and I could see a soccer ball in one of the front yards! Pretty
impressive.
    Here's Terraserver's view of the Meteor Crater in Arizona at medium
resolution:
<http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/image.aspx?S=14&T=1&lat=35.0281&lon=-111.0225>

    Try zooming in, and you'll get excellent high-resolution close-up views
right down into the crater. Count the rocks.


Sterling K. Webb
--------------------------------------

Marc Fries wrote:

> Howdy
>
> Ok, this is pretty cool:
>
> http://maps.google.com/
>
> Google has developed a seamless map database that cross-links to
> satellite photos. I scrolled this thing from Manacouagan crater to
> Wetumpka crater, then out to Hawaii and "visited" my current home and
> my mom's house on the way. This is actually a pretty spectacular site
> for locating physical landform features and cross-referencing them to a
> road map.
> I can see my house from here!
>
> Enjoy,
> MDF
>
> --
> Marc Fries
> Postdoctoral Research Associate
> Carnegie Institution of Washington
> Geophysical Laboratory
> 5251 Broad Branch Rd. NW
> Washington, DC 20015
> PH: 202 478 7970
> FAX: 202 478 8901
> -----
> I urge you to show your support to American servicemen and servicewomen
> currently serving in harm's way by donating items they personally request
> at:
> http://www.anysoldier.com
> (This is not an endorsement by the Geophysical Laboratory or the Carnegie
> Institution.)
> _____________________________
Received on Thu 07 Apr 2005 11:50:07 AM PDT