Excellent Image Idea

[ArtMan]

Benchmarker Cholo has a novel way of illustrating the area in which a mark is located - by aerial photos. Not satisfied with yet another look down the highway, Cholo has taken to the skies for a new perspective on a humble survey mark. Does he (she?) use a hot air balloon, glider, helicopter, airplane or blimp? Or maybe it's satellite imagery. Take a look at NG0212 and NG0213.

 

Good idea, Cholo!

[Growley]

From the looks of the photo, it looks like USAPHOTOMAPS which will produce that image easily.

[+brdad]

Looks similar to USAPhotomaps, but text box is not the same type. Good idea though, especially for urban marks. I am not sure as it would help as much with rural if there wasn't any streets or recognizable landmarks nearby.

 

There's 3 kinds of people in this world, those that can count and those that can't.

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Cholo is apparently using http://www.lostoutdoors.com/

since I get the same map, same marker, same label (if I type it in the site's "Marker name:" box), and same vehicles on the road just to the NW of the location. I have suggested in my Benchmark section wishlist topic that the lostoutdoors site be on the link list on the each benchmark page. The site will automatically take coordinates in either mm dd.ddd or mm.mmmmm format! It also automatically places a marker at the location. There may be others just as good; I don't know.

 

One of Web-ling's posts mentioned the lostoutdoors site, and I've since enjoyed using it for some of my benchmark quests, particularly those with older disks that may have been bulldozed by new construction.

 

Since the benchmarks' locations are SCALED, Cholo's gps's Lat-Lon coordinates was used for NG0213 instead of the ones on the benchmark pages which put its location in the woods instead of correctly next to the road.

 

I haven't tried saving from lostoutdoors (it wants to save as .php), but I think loading up a bunch of satellite pics to the Geocaching website might be a bit much. Cool and useful view though

[Cracker.]

You can also use http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/

 

Art

Proud member of YankeeToys

www.yankeetoys.org

http://www.ttora-ne.mainpage.net/

[Cholo]

Cholo is a he, as was his 17yr old Samoyed from whom he borrowed the name.

I got the idea about "Lostoutdoors" from Black Dog's wish list. I don't have a GPSr. Once I find the benchmark by using the description of its location,I then click on that spot on the air photo and it gives the correct coordinates. I originally thought of putting the air photos in because I was having trouble with my wife's digital camera. How ironic, she always had problems using my 35mm manual SLR.

The air photos are probably more useful in an area with streets, especially if one is familiar with that area. Over the years I've driven past these benchmarks and never knew they existed.

[jfitzpat]

Black... (sorry, forgot the handle!)

 

You should be able to save the images directly from LostOutdoors. I deliver both Topos and Aerials as JPEG files with the markers embedded.

 

One other tip, the 'printer friendly' page delivers the image at a higher Q factor. That is, it takes longer to download, but is higher quality.

 

-jjf

[Red Tractor]

Great Idea! I can create one using AutoCAD and a Jpeg file flown by the County Agricultural Commission

[Red Tractor]

Great Idea! I can create one using AutoCAD and a Jpeg file flown by the County Agricultural Commission