Have you guys tried Google Earth?

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Sat 13/08/2005 13:00

It's pretty cool. I can just see my house in Omarama, although NZ resolution is still too low.

A friend in Sydney can zoom right in to his yard furniture!

Why there's high res satellite imagery available for Seeeeednee and not NZ escapes me, but there ya go.

Still, a very useful tool, and we decided to buy the pro version.

http://earth.google.com/

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 13/08/2005 13:21

yeah I have had it for a while now great free program!

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Sat 13/08/2005 13:42

This google-earth is something I've been fantasising about for many years. I downloaded it earlier this week and find it very addictive. I have a 56 modem, and I've heard it works much better with jetstream/broadband - the resolution obviously must sharpen more quickly with it.

The photos weren't taken at the same time; they must've neded fine weather with minimal cloud. Wouldn't have been easy for places like the subantarctic islands.

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Sat 13/08/2005 13:47

Yes Google recently took over the operations of keyhole...
Very cool tool, but it can be a security concern.

Over time the satellites will capture increasingly better images around the world, so we I might see our spa pool soon from space

It freaks me out already that the Americans can already zoom onto our heads, live!

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Sat 13/08/2005 13:49

I've played with it for a while - great fun when you have broadband

. Coverage to higher res is a bit patchy even in the USA.

Best resolutions in NZ are round Blenheim and on the North Shore.

I've got the Plus version to allow direct imports from GPS (the free version will load gpx files from TUMONZ).

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 13/08/2005 13:49

I remember a while back a new Zealand site that provided free color high quality images of New Zealand main cities. All you did was enter your address and there you had it a sat pic of your property. this was back in 2000-2001 Havent found the site since!

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Sat 13/08/2005 13:54

You can download free aerial photos from the LINZ website including some big (45MB) TIFF versions. Coverage isn't great and most are black and white.

http://www.linz.govt.nz/rcs/linz/pub/we ... /index.jsp

Manukau heads obs · Sat 13/08/2005 14:45

auckland city waterfront and harbour and north has high resolution
you can see alot of detail, egven the shadow from the tall waterfront buildings!

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Sat 13/08/2005 14:56

All mine does is shows the land masses as green contures/blue oceans and a few puffy clouds.if you zoom in it goes totally unfocused and see nothing really.maybe the video card?

Fujita Phil · Unread post by **Fujita Phil** » Sat 13/08/2005 15:00

Foggy Hamilton wrote:Yes Google recently took over the operations of keyhole...
Very cool tool, but it can be a security concern.

I heard those "pc" concerns on the radio the other when they were discussing Google Earth. Cracks me up really... I mean the landmarks and buildings "of interest" usually have been around a lot longer than satellites. It's not like since now we can see them from space we know where they actually are

Really... do you need the satellite to tell you that once you have stolen that plane and are heading towards Paris, the Eiffel Tower is the big metal pointy thing?

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Mon 15/08/2005 21:08

TV1 Weather obviously uses something similar for its main centre fly-overs.

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Mon 15/08/2005 22:16

Michael wrote:All mine does is shows the land masses as green contures/blue oceans and a few puffy clouds.if you zoom in it goes totally unfocused and see nothing really.maybe the video card?

That's probably it Michael. My personal system only has an onboard S3 processor, and 64 MB of shared video memory (in other words, total crap for anything truly demanding), so I see the images as you do.

I may have to upgrade to a decent video card. That way I'll not only be able to get the full res in Google Earth, but also play Battlefield 2!

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Mon 15/08/2005 22:18

No I haven't.

JohnGaul
NZTS