Maybe you already know about this, maybe you don't; but in any event it's way cool!
I ran across terraserver.com years ago and thought it was cool, but Google Earth beats it.
You have to have some software downloaded. Go to http://earth.google.com/ There's a lot of extra stuff they would like you to include in the download but you can elect to delete it and not download/install it.
I found it to be a suberb timewaster; :-/ spent hours looking up places I'd been, want to be at, etc. etc.
(Maybe I should explain that Google Earth gives you very easy access to satellite images of virtually any place on earth. Emphasis is on the USA which figures for an American compant. ...Trivia note: if you zoom in on the standard loading image without any north-south, east-west moving you end up in Lawrence, Kansas :'( which was where the chief designer went to college apparently.
My big disapointment is that there does seem to be a variation in the quality of the sat. images that are used. My property is right over the edge from a "pretty good quality" to a "poor" hard to tell the trees from the ground area! Oh well, maybe sometime soon they will grab another pass on the satellite.,
The link to my property is attached if anyone should somehow be interested. I'm located just south of the "inverted Y" bright washed out area where the image turns from good to undecipherable trash. :(
FYI, the bright washed area is where my access road comes up the last hill. It is exposed pumice, as in what's left over from an ancient volcanic eruption. And also FYI, pumice can be used with cement to produce "pumicecrete", an alternative building product. Makes thick insulating walls. Have a friend building a home using this..
Which is kinda strange... he's paying good money to have pumice hauled in, while I'm sitting on top of a gold/pumice mine of the stuff and planning to build a house of sticks. Go figure!
PS: I don't really know if this attached link will wor... we'll see. Google Earth is still cool tho'. There's a roads overlay you can turn on-off and other neato things.
Enjoy!
OOOPS! The attachment won't work; invalid type. Oh well! But if you input the lat/long of 35°47'19.97"N , 106°34'44.01"W (and that would be a neg# for the lat.) you may find the locale
Wish I had a pile of pumice -- I could have used some this week and I could find lots more to do with it. :)
Had Google Earth til my hard drive died. May load it again some day - you are right - it's cool.
Going off the topic.... and so fast.... :-/ hard drives dying are a royal pain.... Been thru that twice since PC's were invented. I use some software called "Second Copy", do a google. What I like about it is that it saves a simple, exact copy of whatever files/folders you specify to wherever you specify. The data's not in some proprietary format, you can install the backup drive in another 'puter and read them no problem.
Just went thru episode #2 on DW 'puter two weeks ago.
QuoteWish I had a pile of pumice -- I could have used some this week and I could find lots more to do with it. :)
I could FedEx or UPS; it is one of your lighter building materials. ;D
If we stay on topic too long, people will lose interest. :-/ ADD happens.
My primary drive went so it was a giant pain - saved some of it, sent it in for repair as their new deal is to load system backup on the primary and they wiped out the secondary too. They don't even send you a copy CD of your operating system to restore from. :(
I have noticed that my property comes up better on yahoo maps. zoom into where i am then hit sattelite button. Might give it a try. Mike :)
Thanks Mike. I tried it but the imagery on Yahoo was generally worse than Google Earth. I knew I was in a secluded neck of the woods, but this is ridiculous... then again, maybe I really am off the radar. ;)
The Google Maps link to your place is...
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=35.78888,-106.57889&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=35.788881,-106.578895&spn=0.009486,0.021629&t=k&om=0
Generally, Google Earth and Google Maps seem to have the same satellite imagery (or airphotos for some urban areas). The difference is that Google Maps only shows you a straight down view while Google Earth has 3D terrain so you can look in any direction and do fly-throughs.
Thanks Bartholomew, I guess the real problem is just that most of that area is not covered by the same higher defintion/resolution as is the roads right up to the edge of the property. Bummer.
MS Live's site gives great "bird's eye views" for some places.
http://maps.live.com/
I like Flash Earth because you can switch between many different data sources.
http://www.flashearth.com/
When I get back to work, I have another link to one I like better than MS.
Of course all of these are only as good as the data is. Look at Boston and the images are great, check out Northern Maine...not so great.
Almost forgot:
Here's the one I'm using for work the most. I like the interface the best.
http://atlas.freshlogicstudios.com/
Thanks Daddymem - I found newer pictures on Flashearth that actually showed our place.
No more fuzzy pictures of trees? Yeah, we looked for ya, figured we'd see a guy either mooning the plane or ducking for cover from the black helicoptors. ;) Can't wait til they update our area to get good before and afters of our house. I love checking out the buildings I;ve worked on in Bird's Eye.
You missed the moon picture? I can send you one if you'd like. :)
Naw...got it already (http://moon.google.com/). ;)
Oh yeah --- now I remember --- It is amazing that there is such a strong zoom level on the Google camera. :)
That wasn't the same one I was going to send you. :-/