Interesting web site Google Earth. Located it last night four hours later logged off. It is an sattlelite photos of anywhere on earth. Brought up the Madrid and it would show exact intersections and other land marks. For those that were stationed at Torrejon it shows in detail and you can zoom in and out. Weird to see the barracks parking lot with only a few cars parked in it. The flight line had what appears to be only one squadron of aircraft on one end and a few cargo planes on the other. In Madrid one can zoom in and locate Plaza Mayor, and the Gran Via with no problem. The Real Madrid soccer stadium is so plane that one can zoom in and read the team name on the ground.

Put in the address of your own house and it will go to it and show the overhead view of your house. I put in mine and there was Desert Dwellers junk out for one and all to see.

Hello DD:

I agree with you totally. I have checked out that site and it is absolutely the best.

It's a little scary though, watch what you scratch in public!

DaveB

I agree - it's amazing :hdspin:

I have looked around my post code a lot and seen many intesting things - crop circles, profanities (made of bales of hay) and light aircraft caught between the satallite camera thingy and the ground.

Some areas are more zoomable into than others. It's very clear where I live, but just a blur where my parents are - about 90 miles away. There are also some patches (highlighted as paler rectangles) which are even more zoomable into.

I could spend days on there . . . .

Jo
ps - is zoomable a real word?

If you download the desktop program, you can do the same... IN 3D!!!

Desert Dweller,

These maps must be based on some old information. My house doesn't even appear on the map and it was build in 2003.

However it's reassuring to know I'll never be caught on it going to bathroom off the back porch. :o

Google Earth is really cool! Many of the satellite photos they use are several years old. That really hit home for me a few months ago. I was showing Google Earth on a big screen to a group of Indian musicians and dancers - a troupe from the lowest social group in India, on a special tour here in the States. We thought they may be interested. I found their hometown on Google Earth, it's a small village, and they looked at the photos very seriously. They spoke amongst themselves, and then the leader said, "These are old photos." When asked how he knew, he said sadly, "The land is green. It hasn't rained in several years. It's not green anymore."

Same report from my friend in Alcorcon, Spain: the ortho photography that is being used is very old. Since it's free, you can't really complain.

The pay version probably has up to date GIS data.

Thank you, Desert Dweller. I have had a ball looking at the roofs of the places I stayed in Madrid and elsewhere.

I was chatting with a guy in Madrid, and he started asking questions about my city, neighborhood, etc. Suddenly, he started TELLING me stuff about my neighborhood. Then, he sent me a picture of the block I live on and asked which house was mine. Was a little scary, at first, but kinda cool. In a rather Orwellian way...

Then I looked up where he lives in the Salamanca neighborhood, and it was cool to see that....although tough to pick out the exact building, lol.

Shannon McDonough, you can enter his address (if you have it) into http://www.QDQ.com and see a photo of the building and see the location on the map. Then, with that page minimized, you can compare that with the Google Earth site and pick it out. Good luck!

Saludos, MadridMan (double capital Ms, no spaces)