Expanding Mangetout's Landing From Orbit Game

The Game Room
1

Well, contrary to all our expectations, our friend the alien has come back. It seems that it wants to collect a number of photographs from tourist traps here on Earth. And since you made it home the other night, on your own - it’s pretty clear that you’re just what it needs to be its native guide!

So, same rules as before. You start here, and zoom in to find the landmarks listed below. No dragging, no backing out to try again. You may recenter your map by zooming in on a section, but if you ‘miss’ you’re SOL.

Can you get your alien friend the complete set of Earth tourist sites, from here?
I sure couldn’t. I’ve spoilered my results and sometimes included a hint or two.
Point Zero, Paris. (It’s in the courtyard in front of Notre Dame cathedral, and is the official center of the city, for figuring distances) Hugely easy - when one remembers that Notre Dame is on an island in the Seine

The Tower of London bzzt… even after I IDed the Thames tidal barrier, I was still lost on this one)

Time Square, NYC No trouble at all.

The Coliseum, Rome bzzt, again. About five miles away. I think I ended up focusing on a horse track.

The Reflecting Pool, Washington, DC Oy, this is embarassing. I ended up in King of Prussia, PA. Yes - that’s right. I cannot find my own country’s capital from orbit. :o

The USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, HI Made this one. The trick is to remember which island is which. Once one has Oahu, it’s pretty easy.

Hoover, or Boulder, Dam Er… I was several hundred miles east north east. I did find a concrete arch dam. Just the wrong one: Glen Canyon Dam.
For the truly expert: (Which lets me off the hook. I’m the guy who thought that Boulder Dam would be easy.)

The Four Corners

Mt. Rushmore

Feel free to add other challenges. For normal level, try to suggest places that would reasonably be known to Dopers worldwide, as well as being visually distinctive from above. Red Square, for example, would be something I’d consider a good ‘normal’ challenge.

For the expert level challenges, it’s quite fair to suggest places that can be assumed to be known to one’s contrymen, but not necessarily to foreigners. A good example of this might be Canberra.

I will ask that anyone suggesting new challenges keep it only to normal level, unless you have succeeded in one of the expert level challenges I’d listed in this OP.

2

Point Zero - Got the courtyard, don’t know the exact location of the point.
Tower of London - 6 miles off, near the Millennium Dome
Times Square - Hit Madison Park, 1.6 miles away
The Coliseum - Which gladiator did you want to squish?
Reflecting Pool - Splash! (DC is very orderly from above)
Pearl Harbor - Off a few islands
Hoover Dam - wrong end of lake Meade

4 Corners - 150 miles off
Mt. Rushmore - About 70 miles off

My challenge: The Golden Gate Bridge (landed on the South Tower)

3

Point Zero - Missed Paris by several hundred miles
Tower of London - Landed on top of the White Tower
Times Square - I was about 5 miles too far north (I made it to Manhattan easily, but was lost from there)
The Coliseum - I missed *Rome *by several hundred miles
Reflecting Pool - Wound up in Baltimore…
Pearl Harbor - Spot on
Hoover Dam - No problem

4 Corners - I wound up about 100 miles WSW
Mt. Rushmore - About 150 miles due north

The Golden Gate Bridge - Hit the center of the span
And my challenge:

Disneyland, California (I hit Mickey right between the eyes)

4

Well, I was looking far too north for San Francisco. Oops.

I didn’t do too badly for the Disneyland challenge - I ended up at Mile Square Park, about 10 miles away.

(Compared to how I’ve been batting otherwise, that IS good.)

5

Point Zero, Paris. - Not very good. I ended up in the middle of Chartres instead of Paris.

The Tower of London - Better. I landed in London but I have no idea where the Tower is within the city. Looking for what looked like a prominent tower, I ended up on a modern office building on West Inida Quay.

Time Square, NYC - A pretty easy one. Right on target. I actually know NYC.

The Coliseum, Rome - A perfect landing. I was able to find Rome and it’s fairly distinctive looking.

The Reflecting Pool, Washington, DC - Another perfect landing. Finding the city was a little toughter than Rome but finding the pool itself was easier.

The USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, HI - Close. I ended up on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor but I missed the actual monument and landed on a different ship.

Hoover, or Boulder, Dam - I surprised myself on this one by making the landing. I really don’t know the geography that well but I got lucky and spotted a body of water (Lake Mead?) that I guessed was the right one and I was right. After that I just followed it in to the end of the lake and there it was.

My challenge? Do a Matthew Rust and land in the Kremlin.

6

Oh my! I have to get out more. I AM the ugly American.

First off I wasn’t even near Paris at all. I was over near Bordeaux. I had a brain-fart and couldn’t recall even remotely where Paris was. And if I was building Paris…I would put it down near Bordeaux.

I found London, with a quick course correction to my center point early on. But I had no idea where in London to look for the tower. I just guessed and ended up over near Westminster. As to my initial move, I started over toward the “right-hand side” where I recalled London being, but for some reason started going toward the different colored part of the map up toward Boston/Holbeach. What is that region that looks all patchwork when you get in close? Farmlands?

Times Square I actually found pretty easy. But I have been there.

The Coliseum I also found ok.

The reflecting pool was probably the easiest for me.

Pearl Harbor, I ended up at the wrong Hawaiian island altogether and it went downhill from there.

Hoover Dam…not even close.

7

I’m not really eager to seriously try for some ‘landmark’ that I’ve never been to, in a region that I admit I’m not familiar with offhand.

Did try two ‘landmarks’ that I’ve actually visited - the CN tower and Niagara’s horseshoe falls. Niagara was fine, I landed ‘on’ what looks like an observation space near the foot of the falls on the canadian side.

For the CN tower, I got a little mixed up by the satellite angle, and ended up with the observation deck on the last screen instead of the base of the tower… but that wouldn’t have happened in a real spaceship, right? Maybe I hovered the spaceship and stepped across at that height. :smiley:

8

Point Zero, Paris–err, landed in Rouen. Not good, but it could have been worse–at least I found a city on the Seine.

Tower of London–err, now I landed in Wales. Had less clue–and worse luck–finding London than Paris.

Time Square–wrong intersection, but found Manhattan without any major difficulties. Oh, on further investigation, wrong side of Central Park. Despite having been there. Oh, well.

And at that point, I lost interest in finding places from the air.

9

I missed the last thread on this, so how does it work? I start with a zoomed out earth, and I get to re-center it on where i think the landmark is, and zoom in? Then I get one more re-center and zoom-in, or is that first re-center the only one I get? That seems impossible.

10

First off, here’s a link to the original thread.
Now, basically, what you’re allowed to do is zoom in, one level at a time. You don’t have to jump from the globe to, say, the 100 mile window. Just take your time zooming in, and it’s fairly easy.

If you know what you’re looking for, that is. :wink:

What you can’t do is pan your view looking for your destination, if it has fallen outside of your viewing window.

11

Point Zero - I landed a bit downstream, a couple miles off, in Paris

Tower of London - Same result as above, but in London

Times Square - I ended up near the WTC site

Coliseum - I ended up in the counrtyside about 2 hours north. I couldn’t find anything that looked like a city.

Reflecting Pool - Bullseye

Pearl Harbor - I ended up on Maui instead of Oahu

Hoover Dam - Bullseye

Four Corners - Ended up in nearby Farmington, NM - pretty close

Mt. Rushmore - I was about 30 miles NW in the Black Hills

Golden Gate Bridge - Bullseye

Disneyland - I hit a golf course in Cerritos, which is a shame considering I used to live in Long Beach

Kremlin - I landed in the countryside east of Moscow thinking a bunch of clouds was a city

CN Tower - Perfect landing - what an odd angle that is

Niagra Falls - Perfect again

Here’s a tough one: Half Dome - a rock in Yosemite National Park, California - I landed in the park but couldn’t find Yosemite Valley

12

Point Zero–Missed Paris by a considerable distance.

Tower of London–smack dab on it.

Times Square–I know fuck-all about Manhattan geography, but I managed to zoom straight in on this as well.

Coliseum–got it.

Reflecting Pool–sploosh (As mentioned above, DC is pretty easy to navigate from the air)

Pearl Harbor–ended up at Honolulu Airport, surprisingly close (maybe a couple miles) given that I didn’t really know which island to look on.

Hoover Dam: ended up at the Great Salt Lake. Heh.

Four Corners: 228 miles too far in a northwesterly direction.

Mount Rushmore: ended up in northern Minnesota.

Golden Gate Bridge: no sweat.

Not even going to try Disney Land or the Kremlin; I will not be anywhere close.

13

Disneyland - Hit an LA area golf course
Kremlin - 1st try landed in Minsk, after figuring out where Moscow was, 1 hit 1 block away out of pure chance - the onion domes aren’t recognizable until you have an “aha! duh” moment
CN Tower - 4373 km! I guessed it was in Vancouver (Hitting BC place stadium), but it was a tossup between that and Toronto (where on 2nd shot I hit the Eaton Center)
Niagra Falls - Landed right about where I took pictures from over the side
Half Dome - Few miles off along Tioga Road (I had to find Yosemite on gmaps the other day, otherwise I would have totally blown this)
New Challenge: Dealy Plaza - Dallas, Texas - Dropped right onto the Grassy Knoll (I think this one qualifies as hard)

14

A new challenge: the Sydney Opera House. I myself performed very poorly on this one due to the fact that I’m apparently unable to locate Sydney. Even after toggling labels on and off multiple times.

15

Dealy Plaza - I ended up in the Dallas suburb of Richardson

Sydney Opera House - I ended up near the Sydney Airport

Here’s more:

Sears Tower - Chicago, Illinois - I couldn’t pick out which building it was

Superdome - New Orleans, Louisiana - Bullseye

Canadian Parliament - Ottawa, Ontario - I landed in a nearby city

Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina - Landed in the bay

Great Pyramids, Egypt - I got to a nearby city

Space Needle, Seattle, Washington - I missed Seattle completely and landed in Mt. Vernon

16

Okay, I came back thinking of trying this one too - ended up around 40 kilometers west, near Fitzroy Harbour. Oh well.

I’ve never been that good with my directional sense. :smiley:

17

I just tried to find Sydney Opera House. I was hovering about 10 miles up, and couldn’t see anything that looked promising. So I raised the white flag, and found out I was looking in Melbourne. Oops.
Here’s another one to try: The Panama Canal.

18

Sears Tower–about a mile off (couldn’t really remember where exactly it was in Chicago)

Superdome–spot on.

Canadian Parliament–there’s no way I’m even going to find Ottawa.

Fort Sumter–61 miles too far north, in Georgetown, SC

Great Pyramids–got to Cairo, that’s it.

Space Needle–ended up in Vancouver. Oops…

Panama Canal–got it.

19

Alright, now that it doesn’t seem impossible, I’ll try my hand at it (bear in mind my geography skills suck):
Point Zero, Paris: Horrible. I won’t even say how far off I was, but siffice to say I wasn’t even in Paris. Easily over 100 miles away.

The Tower of London: I got London just fine, but was off by a couple miles because I sure as fuck don’t know where anything in London actually is.

Time Square, NYC: Spot on the money, baby. Not bad for only having been to NYC twice in my life, neither time actually going to Times Square. I just relied on my knowledge that it was a “V” type intersection, and hoped that I didn’t accidentally zoom in on the Flat Iron building. :stuck_out_tongue:

The Coliseum, Rome: I was at least in Rome (as compared to the fiasco with Paris.) But I missed it by a couple miles.

The Reflecting Pool, Washington, DC: I surprised myself by getting to DC, but I missed te pool by mere meters. It’s a LOT bigger than I thought it was, so where it actially was I thought was just a patch of grass. :smack: (I ended up zoomed in on the Washington Monument since I knew it was “around there.”)

The USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, HI: Wrong Island. I was on Maui.

Hoover, or Boulder, Dam: Several hundred miles off. I started looking too far north, and by the time I was zoomed in enough to realize it, I was too far zoomed in to fix my mistake.

Sydney Opera House: Got Sydney, but that’s about it.

Panama Canal: I actually got it spot on, but thought I was WAAAY far off before I was zoomed in enough to realize I got it. :stuck_out_tongue:

Golden Gate Bridge: BAM. I just looked for a huge-ass bay of water in CA and went from there.

Disney Land: Thought LA was San Diego, so I went further north and ended up in the middle of nowhere.

All the others I KNOW I won’t get anywhere near.

My contribution: Umm…I got nothing. I as going to do something local to me, but my only choices would be things that are too hard (like UVM,) or too easy (like Lake Champlain.) Oooh, how bout this:

MIT.

20

Nailed it!

But only because we were visiting Rhiannon8404’s sister in Boston a couple weeks ago, and walked past/through it about half a dozen times…before that I would have been completely lost :slight_smile: