Find your latitude and longitude at Google Earth

[sunelec]

Just a point of interest. On the internet you can go to earth.google.com and download a free version of Google Earth. After it is installed on your computer you can pinpoint any location on earth with the mouse pointer and see the latitude and longitude. You will need a pretty good graphics card in your computer though for the more advanced features of the application.

 

[damaged]

Or you could just use: http://www.bcca.org/misc/qiblih/latlong.html

 

[sunelec]

Yes I agree; there are lot of methods. However I just thought it is kind of neat and unique that I can zero in on and view my house from satellite. I was able to get my exact lat. & long. for the position of my dish on my house because I could see my roof. Since much of this internet site is about satellites I just thought this alternate method was appropriate to point out.

 

[grusome]

I like that idea!! I have really enjoyed playing with Google Earth. Now, I can tell my wife, I'm not looking at swimming pools and nudist beaches, but, surveying potential Sat dish locations!!
grusome

 

[sunelec]

Or you can tell her you are looking at potential spots to start your own nudist camp.

 

[KE4EST]

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Stargazer]

Google Maps is awesome. I can only imagine what it will look like in 5 or so years.

 

[mastermesh]

In 5 - 10 years, there'll be a lot of 3d stuff on google maps and on microsoft's satellite imaging thingy, whatever it's called...

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/03/2229249

It appeared to be an SUV, bristling with cameras mounted on the roof, and pointing just about every possible direction. The first time we saw it, all we could see was that it had a sign on the side, something about Windows. The second time we saw it, we stared at it so hard that the driver stopped and we had a chance to ask him what it was all about. He said he was driving around, filming streets, and that there were people doing this all over the world, and getting data from the air too. It was going to be available on the Web. I asked him if this was Microsoft's answer to Google Earth, and he indicated that it was.

 

[MJFlash]

Hi, SunElec!

Not only did I use Google Earth for my home's latitude and longitude, I also used it for site planning for my last three dishes! What I did was to simply create permanent markers for my home, for each of the ~10 satellites I was interested in on the equator, and a "South" marker that simply contained my longitude, with a latitude of 0 degrees. I then used the Ruler...Path function to draw lines from my home to each satellite, as well as to (true) "South". Via the lines to the satellites (plus that handy atan() function in Calculator), I could verify exactly what satellites I'd be able to pick up, and what the line of sight would be to each.

The best piece, however, was instead of having to use a compass to get the motorized dish pointed properly, and having to screw with approximations of magnetic deviation, I just zoomed in to the view of my home with the line to "South" plotted on it, noted where that line crossed the roof of the neighbor's house in the Google Earth satellite image, walked outside, and trivially set the azimuth in minutes. I think my "eyeballed" estimate was less than 1 degree - easy enough when you've got such a clear target to aim for.

A great tool, indeed!

Cheers!

P.S.: As a fascinating tidbit, I can actually see where my original dish is in the Google Earth imagery -- and it's only a Ku dish!!!. This sure makes pointing things easy!

 

[mastermesh]

cool. Wish my house had more details on google maps... I think the airplane that they used to shoot the pic was up high, and all the trees were in full bloom in the area, so it's hard to make out much more than a bunch of blurry tree tops and a bridge that's about 3 blocks from our house across the river.

 

[MJFlash]

Hi, MasterMesh!

Just to show that I wasn't kidding, here's a segment of a screen shot from GoogleEarth, showing the Ruler's Path line from the location of the new motorized dish to South. I've also added a blue highlight to point out where you can see the original (white) satellite dish. Cool!

Cheers!

 

[sunelec]

The satellite pictures that they take vary in the resolution. With some you can zoom right in on your house and see it clearly. With others the resolution is not as high so you can't zoom in as clearly. One of the main uses of these pictures is for real estate sales so the resolution is usually better in and near metropolitan areas where the density of buildings is higher. Keep in mind that this is the free version and they have 2 levels of subscription service which is higher resolution. Also they take and display new pictures about once a year and the next picture could be higher resolution.