TerraServer map link needs to be zoomed in on cache pages

[Rubbertoe]

I searched the forums to see if this has been discussed, and I didn't see any mention of it - so I thought I'd bright it up.

 

When you click on the various map generating links on a cache page, they start out relatively zoomed out - but you can click and zoom in on the location as you please. BUT - that doesn't work with the MSN TerraServer map link. If you click for the satellite map, it starts out at the 16m/pixel zoom level - and if you click on 1m/pixel, you are no longer centered on the coordinates of the cache.

 

I realize that the site doesn't allow for placement of a marker at the coordinate location, but is there a way that the links from the cache pages could automatically be generated at the 1m/pixel level at least? Perhaps I'm missing something, but the way it is now - the TerraServer map link is a litte bit useless. (No offense intended to any of the powers-that-be, of course)

 

I've always used USA PhotoMaps for my terraserver imagery, so I never really thought about it much until I placed a cache today that I wanted to check on some maps to make sure everything was alright.

 

Any tips or opinions are appreciated.

 

The Toe Pages

[+parkrrrr]

Internally, MSN Terraserver uses UTM to index their maps. However, they provide a search facility that takes a latitude and longitude. That search is limited, however, in that it always returns its results at the 16 m/pixel resolution.

 

Given that the cache pages now contain the coords in UTM at the top, however, adding a link to 1 m/pixel MSN Terraserver imagery would not be an impossible task. A zoomed-in image has a URL that looks like this:

 

http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=10&x=3270&y=22727&z=16&w=1

 

The values you need to compute on the fly are these:

x - divide the UTM easting by 200.

y - divide the UTM northing by 200 and subtract 1.

z - the UTM zone.

 

Everything else is exactly as you see it above. (t is the theme; 1 means "aerial photos", 2 means "topo maps." s is the scale; 10 is the 1 m/pixel scale. w is the image size; 1 is medium.)

 

Yeah, that's not so easy to memorize. Sorry about that. Sure would be cool if were to be added to the cache pages.

 

[+Markwell]

You know, if these pages would just be linked to the Topographical and Satellite images on LostOutdoors.com, this would all be moot.

 

http://www.lostoutdoors.com/map.php?map=42,-88&t=1&z=1&s=1&id=&mark=42,-88,255,0,0,7,Confluence*

 

Links to the nearest confluence for me. Not too hard to figure out the URL coding. Here's the link to see the results.

 

Markwell

Chicago Geocaching

"Therapy is expensive but bubble wrap is free."

[+parkrrrr]

You know, I don't like lostoutdoors' images. Maybe it's because of the nasty compression artifacts that come from adding the bright red dot, but the imagery always seems muddier than necessary. I'm partial to the Perl script I use, which generates images (actually, webpages. Note that the cross is not part of the background image.) that look like this. The only reason I haven't made it public is that it contacts geocaching.com to pick up the coordinates, and I'd rather not lose my access that way.

 

[+Mopar]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Markwell:

You know, if these pages would just be linked to the Topographical and Satellite images on LostOutdoors.com, this would all be moot.

---

 

Tae-Kwon-Leap is not a path to a door, but a road leading forever towards the horizon.