mloser Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 I found an image in the gallery that just HAD to be seen here, so I have started the 2007 thread... Once again here's the picture 'contest' 'rules'. ========================================== Contest rules: 1. No intersection stations (the station IS the tower, building, etc.) Why? Well they all look pretty good, but they're not really all that 'benchmarky'. 2. The disk has to be at least vaguely visible in the picture. No - 'view from', 'the area', etc. with no PID marker in it. Why? It's gotta be a Benchmark picture! 3. It has to be a PID in the database, or at least one of its reference marks or its azimuth mark (in case they don't have their own PID). 4. Waymarked benchmark disk - any country. 5. No closeup of just the disk. (Comeon, it's just a disk - where's the nice scenery?) ========================================== Even though this topic is called 2006 part 3, feel free to put in your favorite 'contest picture' (either yours or someone else's) from any previous time. What's the prize in this contest? The prize is that your picture will be seen here with all the other excellent benchmark pictures! (Put your own in if you like, of course.) OD1317 STRATTON MTN LOOKOUT TOWER Quote Link to comment
+PFF Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 Was there a photo taken from the top? -Paul- Quote Link to comment
+PFF Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 (edited) EZ0081, set in 1935. A chilly sunrise at EB3692, Rockingham, NC. Edited January 29, 2007 by PFF Quote Link to comment
mloser Posted January 29, 2007 Author Share Posted January 29, 2007 No photo from the top on that day. My guess is that the tower was closed, or unaccessible, judging by the ice and snow on it. There is at least one pic from the top at the benchmark page--on a much nicer day. Quote Link to comment
monkeykat Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 I found this picture in my vacation pictures folder, and noticed I had managed to get the benchmark disk in the shot. It was taken on Cape Cod near Woods Hole at the Nobska Lighthouse. A DOD Disk Monumented in 1991. LW5817 LW5817 Page Quote Link to comment
+go_pokes Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 (edited) JM0146 Southwest Colorado HL0415South of Ouray, CO Me & Bucky has some great photos of this same benchmark. Edited January 31, 2007 by go_pokes Quote Link to comment
+Harry Dolphin Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 (edited) Best I could do for January. KV6923. With a view of Lake Parsippany. Edited January 31, 2007 by Harry Dolphin Quote Link to comment
+shorbird Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Here's the view from the breakwall at NC0861. Quote Link to comment
2oldfarts (the rockhounders) Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 John & Andy of the Dragon Clan finally got a couple of benchmarky pictures..... PASS in Northern AZ. Actually RM 1 looking south towards Bitter Springs, AZ. PASS RM 1 also looking towards the witness post & station disk. Quote Link to comment
+Black Dog Trackers Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 mloser, thanks for re-starting the photo contest! Here's some I collected starting just after Jan 1 -- NN 91 by lost02 MORGANTOWN AZ MARK by Ernmark SAN BONITO by bullit IMMACULATA by mloser HOLES (view South) by 2oldfarts (the rockhounders) HOLES (view West) by 2oldfarts (the rockhounders) X 2 by Geo-trekkers-6 Court sheriff recreation area...Cadastral survey disk by skeezicks TURN NOSE by Nitro929 Quote Link to comment
+GrizzFlyer Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Here are a couple of pix of benchmark "area" shots that I took in January. I was kinda proud that I found them, as the coordinates were 52 miles off. Located them by description alone. Thinking that I was probably going to be the first to locate them since they were created, I was a little excited about checking these out. My excitement died down a bit when I finally get did get the chance to pursue them and discovered marking paint circling both BM's. They were old paint marks, but enough to show that somebody was here before me. BM PID's are in upper LH corner of pix. Hope these pix come out correctly, first time using this image-hosting service. Quote Link to comment
Bill93 Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 LA0495 and LA0496 have VERTCON elevations, which means they took the old NGVD 29 values and used an offset that is typical of the general area to get to NAVD88. Those aren't very precise values but are still useful. If the coordinates are 52 miles off (is that a whole degree?) then the VERTCON is not correct for their location, and the NAVD88 elevation values are even less accurate. This should probably be noted in any log to NGS. Quote Link to comment
+GrizzFlyer Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 What I believe happened was that whoever was originally entering the BM's in 1947 somehow erred and entered the same coordinates for other BM's with the same designation that were 52 miles away. LA0495 and LA0166 have the same designation (1), and are listed with the exact same coords. Same thing for LA0496 and LA0165, with the designation of 2. A human mistake that hasn't been corrected all these years. I don't usually sent reports in to the NGS, but in this case an exception should be made and I'll get to it this week. Quote Link to comment
Papa-Bear-NYC Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 (edited) What I believe happened was that whoever was originally entering the BM's in 1947 somehow erred and entered the same coordinates for other BM's with the same designation that were 52 miles away. LA0495 and LA0166 have the same designation (1), and are listed with the exact same coords. Same thing for LA0496 and LA0165, with the designation of 2. A human mistake that hasn't been corrected all these years. I don't usually sent reports in to the NGS, but in this case an exception should be made and I'll get to it this week. GrizzFlyer Good research on these stations. However, surveying parties setting bench marks do not specify locations (as in lat/lon) in their reports since they don't know that information, and it is not derivable from their data (unlike triangulation stations). They specify the TO REACH information which is what you see. According to DaveD, the locations were put in by the NGS in the 1970s by NGS personell based on loooking at topographic maps using the original descriptions. These are called scaled coordinates. Errors can be of several types: Inaccurate reading of the map. If a mark was set at a street intersection for instance, they could use a drafting table and read off the map for that place. They would be off by the errors in this process. Wrong interpretation of the description: I have see marks which were at the wrong end of a road where someone read a description and switched north for south, etc. Blunders: They may have read the description for A instead of B because it was the next one in the pile (or the same designation as you point out). This is what you are inplying happened. But it did not happen in 1947, more likely in the 1970s when the locations were added. Here's a thread on how these coordinates were set: Scaled Coordinates. Edited February 19, 2007 by Papa-Bear-NYC Quote Link to comment
Bill93 Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Do the elevations make sense for the marks you found? I once found a set of 3 reset marks AA3903 AA3904 AA3905 that had coordinates in a different county, and their elevations had been "reset" from those in that other county. It was obvious from the topo that they were 50 to 150 feet wrong. Quote Link to comment
+GrizzFlyer Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Papa Bear -NYC: Thanks for jogging the memory on when the scaled coords were actually derived. It does appear to be just some type of human blunder. Bill93: The elevations for the two BM's I found are consistant with other BM's with adjusted altitudes in the area, right around 750 feet, and the land in that part of Ohio is very flat. The altitudes for BM's in the other county are in the 950-955 foot range, including the two BM's previously mentioned with the exact same coordinates. It is curious to note that the two errant BM's were listed in the Van Wert County NGS database, despite their coordinates putting them in Shelby County, so they did get the county name correct. That's how I discovered the errors, when plotting all the Van Wert County BM's with DeLorme Street Atlas and those two show up 52 miles away. Quote Link to comment
+go_pokes Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 A little bit of 'everything' in this photo. KM0408 Grand County, Utah Quote Link to comment
Difficult Run Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Here's an unusual and somewhat difficult mark to get to - HV9345 I'm not sure that it meets the criteria of the Benchmark Picture Contest Rules, but it's so unusual, I had to share with everyone. Quote Link to comment
+Harry Dolphin Posted March 7, 2007 Share Posted March 7, 2007 KV0508 Hey! It's New Jersey! This is scenic. View east along Rte 46 in Ridgefield Park, towards the entrance to the Turnpike. Quote Link to comment
+NorthWes Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 Here's an unusual and somewhat difficult mark to get to - HV9345 I'm not sure that it meets the criteria of the Benchmark Picture Contest Rules, but it's so unusual, I had to share with everyone. Now there's a benchmark that's got glitz, history, glamor and some pretty good scenery to boot; the fact that it's one of those relatively rare 'indoor' benchmarks adds immensely to its stature. Thanks for posting the photo - that's a real treat! Gee... I wonder how often that grate sees water??? Quote Link to comment
+NorthWes Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 My caching partners (the Ladybug Kids & Scobey) graciously indulged me in a few spectacular benchmark locations during a February caching trip across southern California... DX0780 F753 RESET located on the shaded front step of Palm Springs CA City Hall (looking south). Found within a hundred yards of rental car pickup at Palm Springs airport - our first recovery on the California expedition! DW0367 H1254 located just outside the southern entrance to Joshua Tree Nat'l Park. My geobuddy Scobey spied the naked witness post 50' off the road from the back seat of the cachemobile, earning himself a 'first to find' and a 'first GECOCAC recovery' and his own personal first reported recovery to NGS here! View is north to the mountains of Joshua Tree NP. DW0363 M1254 on Box Canyon Rd, just south of I-10 (visible in the middle distance) and the mountains of Joshua Tree NP's southern border. AH9153 V1462 perched high atop the scenic twisty Palms to Pines Highway, looking north to the Palm Springs area. Quote Link to comment
Difficult Run Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 Here's one on the Potomac River, with two rowing crews passing by at high speed. HV3866 Where's the life-preservers on these guys? ~ Mitch ~ Quote Link to comment
+GEO*Trailblazer 1 Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 Had to get a Transcontinental Arc in here. The Stone is carved USC&GS 1897. Check out the History on the house from the data sheet. JD0295 VERSAILLES N BASE Quote Link to comment
+PFF Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 ...ON LAND OWNED AND FARMED IN 1922 BY 5 DAUGHTERS OF MR. MOSES H. TIPTON, ALL LIVING AT THE HOME PLACE. GEO: I'm trying to remember how the story goes. "A benchmark hunter is recovering marks on Mr. Tipton's land, when darkness falls. He asks Mr. Tipton if he can spend the night. Mr. Tipton points to his five daughters, and says......" Oh well, even if I can't recall the ending of the story, it's a great find! Good job! -Paul- Quote Link to comment
+ddnutzy Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 MZ2053 (Brace) NY It is close to the NY, MA, CT border. Quote Link to comment
+Black Dog Trackers Posted April 9, 2007 Share Posted April 9, 2007 I had some more saved up...... U 136 by RazorbackFan HAY CADH 1964 by Moun10Bike DOUG by Nitro929 R 414 by shorbird LFUCG GPS STA 0105 by wuja STEARNS by Klemmer & TeddyBearMama H 285 by shorbird RANCH by AZcachemeister KEANAKAKOI by astrochick GRAYBACK by AZcachemeister Ten's the limit; I have a few more.... Quote Link to comment
+Black Dog Trackers Posted April 9, 2007 Share Posted April 9, 2007 WINN by wuja WOOD by shorbird V 374 by CallawayMT W 49 by AZcachemeister Woodford County 151A by wuja Quote Link to comment
+ddnutzy Posted April 11, 2007 Share Posted April 11, 2007 One of the members suggested that I submit this BM as it is quite unique. I'm sorry but I don't remember who it was as I deleted the message. I'm also not sure which photo he ment so I picked this one. This is MZ2048 the highest point in CT. Quote Link to comment
+Harry Dolphin Posted April 11, 2007 Share Posted April 11, 2007 My best shot from the weekend. KV3463. View of the Meadowlands and Berry Creek, in Carlstadt, NJ. (Ignore the shopping cart.) Quote Link to comment
+maineiacmoose Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 (edited) Heres Some scenery for ya.HW3468 <BR> Edited April 16, 2007 by maineiacmoose Quote Link to comment
+Harry Dolphin Posted April 29, 2007 Share Posted April 29, 2007 Dolphin loves to show off his photos. And to show that there are many beautiful places in New Jersey. LY2623 Quote Link to comment
+Ernmark Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 ..this is always one of my favorite threads & there hasn't been any activity for awhile - so I looked back to see if I had any good pics to add to bump it up...how 'bout this one: KW2805 - KINK (quit chuckling, Harry!) ..has kind of a "Bank of America Logo" look to it & a good 30+ foot drop to the tracks! Quote Link to comment
+TheBeanTeam Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Here is one from the Columbia River in Oregon looking north into Washington. The mark is at the base of the pillar in lower left corner of photo. ZZ 104 Looking South at another Bridge in the Gorge. Z 104 Squaw in North Eastern Oregon. The real view here is from the witness post just a few feet away. I couldn't get the mark in view for the photo though. Quote Link to comment
+v-hunter Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 This is QD0325 at the Crook County courthouse. It is also the oldest disc I've found so far, 1904. Quote Link to comment
+Astro_D Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 (edited) WOW!! Why don't I have anything like these pixs?? Wisconsin really is a boring state (the parts we hunted in anyways). Here's one of our favorites, although the pix really doesn't do it justice.... PM0129 - Manitowoc County, WI Edited June 20, 2007 by AstroD-Team Quote Link to comment
+elvis3068 Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 I have very much enjoyed this thread. Keep those pictures coming!! We may not have the spectacular here in Central Pennsylvania, but we do have simple beauty that I enjoy daily. Here is LZ0298: Quote Link to comment
+Wabbits Posted August 15, 2007 Share Posted August 15, 2007 FA2582 Table Rock, NC @ about 4000' and yup, just drops off right there where you can see my nieces knee. Quote Link to comment
+skeezicks Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 (edited) Here is a picture of "Spokane" benchmark(RW0556) .It is located at the top of Spokane Butte in Montana. Edited October 19, 2007 by skeezicks Quote Link to comment
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