Virtual Tourism

Star Viewer Update

2009-11-06T06:19:00.000-08:00

I have added the latest Hubblecast video to the Star Viewer map. The latest video looks at NGC 2623.

NGC 2623 appears to be one very bright and bizarre galaxy, but is actually the result of a pair of spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, smashing together at incredible speeds.

You can access the video from the sidebar to the left of the map or you can use the 'recently added' link underneath the map.

Safari

2009-10-25T02:41:00.000-07:00

One of the hidden treasures of Google Maps is Mike Fay's Megaflyover images of Africa. These images provide some super close-ups of a number of African animals. This Safari map animates through a few of the best images from the Megaflyover.

Unfortunately this map tries to default back to Google Maps' normal zoom levels. The secret in using this map is to press the 'Play again' button (bottom right) which forces the map to zoom in beyond the default levels and exposes some great close up shots of the animals.

View the Safari

The Canadian Parliament Street View Tour

2009-10-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

Using Google's newly released Street View imagery of Canada and Prague I've created a small Street View tour of Parliament Hill in Ottawa and of Prague's Old Town Square.

If you pan the Street View around then information about what is currently being shown in the Street View will appear at the bottom of the screen.

The code for this small Street View tour was developed with the help of Map Channels.

View the The Canadian Parliament Street View Tour

View Prague's Old Town Square

NASA Moon Rocket Crash Site

2009-10-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

Here is a Google Earth browser plugin map of yesterday's NASA experiment of firing a segment of rocket into the Moon. The target for the rocket was the Cabeus Crater. The crater was chosen because the lighting conditions at the time would be ideal to see the resulting ejected dirt and rock.

The map includes an embedded YouTube video from Associated Press showing footage of the mission. To view the map and video you will need to have installed the Google Earth plugin on your computer.

View the NASA Moon Rocket Crash Site

Star Viewer Map

2009-09-26T06:21:00.000-07:00

I've added a new video from the Spitzer Hidden Universe series to the Star Viewer Map. The new video shows the formation of crystalline structures caused when material from Ex Lupi's disk started falling into the central star.

EX Lupi is in the constellation Lupus, about 500 light years away. To view the video select EX Lupi from the left hand side-panel or from the recently added link under the map. Then click on the blue square map marker on the map.

I've also added a comments section to the map, so now you can also leave feedback on the page.

Sydney Dust Storm Map

2009-09-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday morning Sydney, Australia awoke to a red haze. The haze was a dust storm blown in from the desert outback. The dust storm stretched hundreds of kilometres along the coast of Australia.

Air pollution levels from the dust were the highest recorded since records began in the 1970s, with 15,500 micrograms of particles per cubic metre. This Google Map is a collection of a number of YouTube videos of the storm, shot in and around Sydney.

Sydney Dust Storm Map

Aga Khan Palace, India

2009-09-13T02:08:00.000-07:00

The Aga Khan Palace was constructed by Sultan Mohammed Shah, Aga Khan III, in the year 1892. Built in Yerwada, near Pune, it was intended to be a source of employment for the famine-struck villagers in the surrounding areas. Prince Karim El Husseni, Aga Khan IV, donated the palace to the Government of India in 1969, in memory of Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophy. The Aga Khan Palace is in Kalyani Nagar, Pune

The Aga Khan Palace is also known as the Gandhi National Memorial because of its close association with Mahatma Gandhi, who was kept at this palace under house arrest in the 1940s.

View a video of the Aga Khan Palace on Google Maps

Daulatabad Fort, India

2009-09-12T04:05:00.000-07:00

Daulatabad, is a 14th century fort city in Maharashtra, India, about 16 kilometers northwest of Aurangabad. The place, was once as known as Deogiri, (circa the sixth century AD, when it was an important uplands city along caravan routes and is now a village, based around the former city of the same name.

In 1327, it became the capital of Tughlaq dynasty, under Muhammad bin Tughluq (r. 1325-1351), who also changed its name, and forcibily moved the entire population of Delhi here, for two years, before it was abandoned due to lack of water.

View a video of Daulatabad Fort in Google Maps

Bibi Ka Maqbara, India

2009-09-10T05:34:00.000-07:00

Bibi Ka Maqbara is a maqbara built by Prince Azam Shah, son of Emperor Aurangzeb,the great Mughal Emperor, in the late 17th century as a loving tribute to his mother, Rabia Durrani. The monument's name translates literally to 'Tomb of the Lady', but has earned the nickname 'poor man’s Taj' because it was made to rival the Taj Mahal. It is situated in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.

Unfortunately the comparison to the Taj Mahal has resulted in a general ignorance of the monument.

View a video of Bibi Ka Maqbara on Google Maps

Fatehpur Sikri, India

2009-09-08T05:36:00.000-07:00

Fatehpur Sikri is a city and a municipal board in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The historical city was constructed by Mughal emperor Akbar beginning in 1570 and served as the empire's capital from 1571 until 1585, when it was abandoned for reasons that remain unclear.

The surviving palace and mosque are a tourist attraction and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

View a video of Fatehpur Sikri on Google Maps

Brighton Map - Updated

2009-08-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

Here's an early look at a Google Map that I'm working on at the moment. SeeBrighton shows museums, tourist attractions, clubs, sports venues and hotels in the city on the south coast of the UK.

At the moment the map is really just a collection of markers. ~~I plan to make the categories of markers selectable so that you can view one category of marker at a time or any combination of categories together.~~ I also plan to add other categories, such as restaurants and cafes.

I've now started working on version 1.1 of this. You can see the results here.

Portugal, Switzerland and Taiwan in Street View

2009-08-18T06:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Google added Street View imagery for a number of cities in Portugal, Switzerland and Taiwan.

I've been playing around with the new 'photosynth' type feature in Street View. This feature hasn't been added to the Google Maps API yet but I have managed to hack together a little site that shows some Street Views with the new feature.

Click on the photographs in the top right of the Street View to view photos from Panoramio and Picasa. all the Street Views on this page come from the new countries added yesterday to Street View.

The Bird's Nest, Beijing

2009-08-08T04:14:00.000-07:00

Beijing National Stadium, also known as the National Stadium or colloquially as the Bird's Nest, is a stadium in Beijing, China. The stadium was designed for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Located in the Olympic Green, the $423 million stadium is the world's largest steel structure. The design was awarded to a submission from the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron in April 2003, after a bidding process that included 13 final submissions.

View a video of The Bird's Nest on Google Maps Mania

Elmina Castle, Ghana

2009-08-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

Elmina Castle was erected by the Portuguese in 1482 as Sao Jorge da Mina (St. George of the Mine) Castle, also known simply as Mina or Feitoria da Mina) in present-day Elmina, Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast). It was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea, so is the oldest European building in existence below the Sahara.

First established as a trade settlement, the castle later became one of the most important stops on the route of the Atlantic Slave Trade. The Dutch seized the fort from the Portuguese in 1637, and took over all the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1642. The slave trade continued under the Dutch until 1871 when the fort became a possession of the British Empire.

View a video of Elmina Castle on Google Maps

Star Viewer Update

2009-07-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

I've added another video to the Star Viewer Map. The latest video to be added to the map is a 3D animation of Pismis 24-1.

Pismis 24-1 (also known as HDe 319718) is part of an open cluster in the nebula NGC 6357. Pismis 24-1 is the largest and more brilliant of the visible stars of this cluster and is one of the most massive stars known. The star is at least a double star, as revealed by the recent observation of camera ACS of the Hubble space telescope.

NSFW Map

2009-07-12T01:07:00.000-07:00

I have to apologise in advance for the unacceptably puerile nature of this Google Maps Mashup. This map geo-tags some of the more risqué place names around the world.

The map animates Twittervision style through a hundred of the rudest named places in the world. The map includes 'stop' and 'play' buttons, so if you are intrigued by the name of the location you can pause the map and have a closer look.

If you are interested in the etymology of some of the more imaginatively named locations in the world then this Wikipedia entry (which was the Wikipedia front page article yesterday) explains the history of one once popular road name in the UK.

NSFW Map

Cape Coast Castle, Ghana

2009-07-11T04:21:00.000-07:00

Cape Coast Castle is a fortification in Ghana. The first timber construction on the site was erected in 1653 for the Swedish Africa Company and named Carolusborg after King Charles X of Sweden. It was later rebuilt in stone.

In April 1663 the whole Swedish Gold Coast was seized by the Danes, and integrated in the Danish Gold Coast. In 1664 the Castle was conquered by the British and was extensively rebuilt by the Committee of Merchants (whose Governors administered the entire British colony) in the late 18th century. In 1844, it became the seat of the colonial Government of the British Gold Coast.

View a video of Cape Coast Castle

St Joseph's Cathedral, Eritrea

2009-07-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

St Joseph's Cathedral in Asmara, Eritrea, is a large Romanesque style cathedral in the centre of the city that was built when Eritrea was an Italian colony. It is the seat of the Ethiopian Catholic bishop of the eparchy of Asmara.

The Ethiopian Catholic Church is an autonomous particular church of the Roman Catholic Church. The building took six years to construct and was consecrated in 1922. Its tall Gothic tower is loosely based on that of the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, London.

View a video of St Joseph's Cathedral in Google Maps

Medusa Map

2009-06-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

I've added a video of the Medusa Galaxy to the Star Viewer Map. To view the video click the link at the bottom of the page.

Due to the imminent demise of Google Pages I've also had to change the home page of the Star Viewer Map. It will still work on the previous Google Pages link for a few more days.

However, if you have the Star Viewer Map bookmarked, you will need to change the url to:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/keir.clarke/star/sky.htm

Wimbledon Twitter Map

2009-06-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

Using some code made freely available by www.mapchannels.com I've created a Wimbledon Twitter Map. The page shows all the latest Tweets about Wimbledon. It is also possible to click on a number of player names to see the latest Tweets about your favourite tennis players.

The map itself doesn't actually serve much purpose but you can search for different locations to see what people are saying about Wimbledon (or the players) at different locations around the world.

Pinwheel Galaxy

2009-06-10T04:30:00.000-07:00

I've added a video of the Pinwheel Galaxy to the Sky Viewer Map.

The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy about 27 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Mechain on March 27, 1781, and he subsequently communicated his discovery to Charles Messier who verified its position and added it to the Messier Catalogue as one of the final entries.

The video comes from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope Hidden Universe series.

Putuo Zongcheng Temple

2009-05-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

The Putuo Zongcheng Temple of Chengde, Hebei province, China is a Qing Dynasty era Buddhist temple complex built between 1767 and 1771, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1735-1796). It is located near the Chengde Mountain Resort, which is south of the Putuo Zongcheng.

Along with the equally famed Puning Temple, it is one of the Eight Outer Temples of Chengde. The temple was modeled after the Potala Palace of Tibet, the old sanctuary of the Dalai Lama built a century earlier

View a video of the Putuo Zongcheng Temple on Google Maps

Ming Dynasty Tombs

2009-05-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

The Ming Dynasty Tombs are located some 50 kilometres due North of Beijing at a specially selected site. The site was chosen by the third Ming Dynasty emperor Yongle (1402 - 1424), who moved the capital of China from Nanjing to the present location of northwest Beijing. The Ming tombs of the 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty were located on the southern slope of Mount Taishou.

The site of the Ming Dynasty Imperial Tombs was carefully chosen according to Feng Shui principles. According to these, bad spirits and evil winds descending from the North must be deflected; therefore, an arc-shaped area at the foot of the Jundu Mountains north of Beijing was selected.

View a video of the Ming Dynasty Tombs on Google Maps

Photosynth Map

2009-05-10T01:51:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of press lately about websites using Microsoft's Photosynth and Virtual Earth together. The Photosynth player can also be embedded in a Google Map.

This example is a proof of concept. I haven't added many examples and I haven't really thought about the design of the page yet. However it does show the potential of embedding Photosynth in Google Maps.

View Photosynth in Google Maps

H1N1 Swine Flu Timeline

2009-04-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

Using the Google Earth plugin I've created a timeline of the H1N1 Swine Flu outbreak. The data comes from the H1N1 Swine Flu My Map.

Due to the inaccuracy of the data this map should be seen purely as an experiment. For example, the timestamps on the data seems to suggest that the outbreak spread from the USA to Mexico rather than the other way around. However the timeline does give a rough idea of how the outbreak seems to be spreading.

View the H1N1 Swine Flu Timeline.