# Could you find your home from space? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 11, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749 "2004-06-11T01:26:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749/41 "2004-06-11T17:01:51Z")
> [@Lsura](#): > > … > I just went to [http://terraserver.microsoft.com/](http://terraserver.microsoft.com/) … Heck, using that, I got my _house_. I think I was lucky on the first click into New Jersey, though – a bit off and I would have been a county away. But I live just south of the pointy part of a distinctive lake, so I think I’d be fine coming in from orbit, once I got aimed at North Jersey. And here, from the OP, I figured that I’d have to fly to New York City and then follow the roads! ---
**Author:** ![buckgully](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb9ed0/32.png) [@buckgully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buckgully)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749/42 "2004-06-11T17:09:58Z")
Using Moffet Field as a landmark, I was able to click directly on my house using terraserver. However, I got confused when it got to the highest zoom level - apparently the pictures of my area are from 1991, and the major intersection near my house has been completely changed sometime in the past 10 years. They moved lanes around, removed a large island, and looks like they cut down on the number of turn lanes. Now there’s a park where the intersection used to be. So if you sent me back in time, I might not be able to find it as quickly as if you shot me into space today. We had an overhead view of the house I grew up in hanging on the wall. Actually I think it may be the same USGS picture that Terraserver uses, only an older version. I know that picture like the back of my hand, and could find our house, or just about any other landmark on that picture, with my eyes closed in a dark room. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749/43 "2004-06-11T19:55:08Z")
I used Alameda as the major landmark, then the Oakland Airport, then a school down the street from my house. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749/44 "2004-06-11T20:04:14Z")
Hmm… am I being whooshed or is this a trick question? You’re in orbit, FFS! At that distance your home is simply not discernable to the human eye. ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749/45 "2004-06-11T21:42:39Z")
Easy. 1. Find North America 2. Find the Baja California Peninsula, right next to the Sea of Cortez 3. Go up the coast to the Bay Area 4. Find San Francisco. 5. Once I’m in San Fran, I can follow the highways to get to my house. ---
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749/46 "2004-06-11T22:00:23Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > Darn, I misstook Moffet Airfield for San Jose airport a mile or so up, and landed in Mountain view. Still I can get the train easy enough from there. Hey, I think you landed on my old office building in Mountain View! No, I couldn’t find it but thanks to this thread I now know that if I ever need to get home from space, I just follow the bay up to the narrowest point and I live just past that. I think it’s just after the third highway overpass. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749/47 "2004-06-11T22:29:21Z")
No problem. First, find California. Starting at the San Francisco Bay, go northeast until you get to Sacramento. (If you see Folsom Lake, you’ve gone too far. If you see Tahoe, you’ve \*really \* gone too far.) Once you find downtown Sacramento, the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers is easy to spot. My house is about 1.5 miles away, almost due north. **cityboy916** , I have that map as my desktop wallpaper. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749/48 "2004-06-11T23:06:12Z")
Another San Franciscan saying “piece of cake!” The house I grew up in would be dead easy to find as well - Head for O’Hare airport and go due north one mile. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749/49 "2004-06-12T04:06:33Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I don’t understand this question. > > I pretty much know where I am at all times. Finding where I live from, let’s face it, what is essentially a map, is as easy as pointing right at it first time. “If I remember from my atlas, we live in a big purple country.” “And our house is by the giant letter E in the word STATES.” -Calvin and Hobbes. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749/50 "2004-06-12T04:12:37Z")
> [@qts](#): > > Hmm… am I being whooshed or is this a trick question? You’re in orbit, FFS! At that distance your home is simply not discernable to the human eye. I think the idea is you’re falling (slowly), and trying to aim for your house; can you aim for the general area, in such a way that you can eventually see your house when you get close enough ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749/51 "2004-06-12T05:54:26Z")
I guess you’d have a really hard time if you lived in one of the large, dark land areas, like the middle of Siberia or something. ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749/52 "2004-06-12T22:00:59Z")
> [@](#): > > I guess you’d have a really hard time if you lived in one of the large, dark land areas, like the middle of Siberia or something. Siberia is dark? What, couldn’t they afford their power bill or something? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-from-space/249749.md?page=2)