As reported by both the Google Earth Blog and Ogle Earth, Microsoft has provided an awesome update to the UK satellite imagery on their Live Local service. (I still can’t work the zoom tool unfortunately, has anyone else noticed that dragging the slider sends the zoom the wrong way?)

Anyway, despite being a little disappointed that I have to use Live Local to see it, I’m nonetheless very pleased to be able to scroll around high-res imagery of Google Sightseeing’s home town for the first time! Yes, Edinburgh, along with loads of other places in the UK is now covered with some fantastic quality shots. They even managed to capture Edinburgh on a sunny day!

In our thumbnail you can see the world famous Edinburgh Castle, which has the seating in place on the Castle Esplanade for the yearly Tattoo, which takes place at the same time as the Festival. However the tent for the book festival tent hasn’t been erected yet, which places these images around late July. Furthermore, Ocean Terminal hasn’t been finished yet, so I reckon this is probably July 2000.

I could post a bazillion things from Edinburgh (like where I used to skateboard, my primary school or my house) but I won’t. I hereby promise only to post things which other people submit!

P.S. Mac users note that Live Local still doesn’t work in Safari.

Thanks to Jenni, Nev and Simon.

Following on from our elephant and giraffe shadows, here’s the rather excellent shadow of someone riding a horse!

Thanks to Barði.

This is the People’s Friendship Arch in Kiev – a huge titanium arch, 50 metres in diameter, which celebrates the union of Russia and Ukraine. Underneath the arch stand two statues which can be seen at the Kiev City Guide. I’m not entirely sure how the people of Kiev feel about these monuments, anyone want to let us know?

No one submitted this, and I couldn’t find it on any of the other sightseeing sites either! See, there’s still plenty of stuff out there to be found

Floating above the Parc André-Citroën in Paris, France, we find a gigantic tethered hot-air-balloon. If you look closely at the shadow you can see that the “basket” has no bottom! Have the occupants plummeted to their untimely deaths?

No, rather un-dramatically this balloon’s gondola has been designed as a circular platform with a huge hole in the middle. Here’s a good gallery with some on board shots (from which I also realised that all the little rectangles of white in the park are actually people’s picnic rugs).

Thanks to Craig Simpson.

Until recently only visible in Google Earth, Maps users too can now see this super-cool sequence of aeroplane shadows above Germany’s largest airport, Frankfurt International.

The first one is the best I think, but it’s great how the shadow from the plane (which has been captured multiple times) fades out as the aircraft climbs higher.

Weirdly, just the first shadow has had its plane erased by the image-blending process, while the second, third and fourth planes can still be seen.

Much of Germany is now covered in excellent high-resolution imagery, so I’m sure we’ll have lots more good German sightings!

Thanks to Dominik Freitag, Sven Becker, Martin, Philipp Frey, Urs, Giovanni, andr3as and XF.