Live Local (again) and some helicopters
The other day, Windows Live Local added high-resolution aerials of Edinburgh, and Alex and I promptly wasted hours and hours finding everything there was to see in our home city and arguing about the exact date the photos were taken.
I know we’re called Google Sightseeing, but I can’t resist posting Edinburgh Live Local sites, such as the Museum of Scotland, the flumes at the Commonwealth Swimming Pool, where I was married last year, where I studied at University and the Scott Monument. I could fill a whole website with these!
Anyway, one of the coolest things I found was this helicopter parked in the Meadows (a large park just beside Edinburgh University) and it reminded me of a Google Earth story which I’d meant to run a few weeks ago…
On December 1st, 2005 the Spanish opposition leader Mariano Rajoy hopped on a Police Helicopter which departed from a bullring in Mostoles, Spain and later crashed just outside the stadium, luckily no-one was badly injured.
Google Earth users spotted this picture of a helicopter in the bullring, and following some investigation, deduced that this satellite photo is in fact a picture of the helicopter that crashed on that very day, presumably only a few hours before departure.
Thanks: Simone & Amio Cajander
James, the the Edinburgh helicopter thumbnail links to the Mostoles satellite photo.
BTW, that’s one sweet shadow on the Scott Monument photo!
This is just a sample message, to see if a new plugin has worked.
Although us superior Mac types cant use Live Local i just want to say what a good word ‘flume’ is!
Try saying it without smiling!
Loving the wee pointers to Edinburgh stuff!
I remember walking through the meadows one winter day in the snow and a helicopter landed right at that spot bringing the snow back up into the air as a blizzard. Magic! Doesn’t really happen anymore with the ERI move…
What is the Scott Monument comemorating? Just interested.
Live Local appears to be working fine on this Mac…
Rob - It is a monument to the author Sir Walter Scott. You can pay to climb the stairs to the top for a nice view over Edinburgh, and it’s usually very cold up there.
salmacis - Live Local does work on Macs, but not Safari - only Firefox and Camino. I wish they’d hurry up and fix that.
yeah, I paid to go up the steps on the Scott Monument, got dizzy on them and only made it to the first platform. my loverly boyfriend went all the way up and snapped some photos of the sea from there. Edinburgh is gorgeous!
Just so you can see the comparison:
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=51.503398~-0.119707&style=h&lvl=19
vs.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
The clarity and colour of Live Local seems better in a lot of places, and if you have a fast enough internet connection, the speed and usability isnt bad either!
From the London Eye comparison, I’m not sure I agree. The gamma correction of the Google image is much better and the colours look more natural to me.
I don’t think I ever saw the Scott Monument without scaffolding and green mesh surrounding it as a young ‘un. And that was me living near Edinburgh for a good 10 years or so.
The Edinburgh photos are far higher resolution than Google for most of the city, so I’m not going to worry about gamma correction at mo
The photos must be at least 4 years old as the flume were demolished some time ago and the there are now flats built on the tennis courts at George Watson’s College.
Have recently heard that there are new high res aerial photos for edinburgh (taken in april) so heres hoping they appear on google maps soon. Thanks for the links to my town, i went straight to look for my house too! great site too!
The google mapping of edinburgh was carried out july/august 05 judging by the edinburgh festival venues and the new telford college being built. p.s it was done on a saturday as well as the car park barrier at my work scottish gas HQ at granton is up which only happens on a saturday
The Google High-Res (At least in Central Edinburgh) were taken Aug 2006.
All the fringe events in the High Street are there and the Scaffolding. (none in St Giles Street and on front of St Giles Cathedral) is consistent with that year.
Actually I work at the High street and we work set positions as a result I can see myself and my colleagues easily (myself being the hardest to spot.)