# Could you find your home, starting from orbit? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 17, 2008, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706 "2008-04-17T11:06:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/1 "2008-04-17T11:06:24Z")
You’re out cow-tipping one night and an alien abducts you. After implanting things in your neck, drilling holes in your teeth and lots of anal probing, the alien tells you to drive yourself straight home. Then he goes to bed, leaving you in control. So you’re in charge of the flying saucer, as it descends slowly - unfortunately you don’t have sufficient limbs and orifices to be able to control the vessel in a level glide, or to make it ascend for a second try - so you do not have the option of getting down close, then navigating the rest of the way via local landmarks, road signs, etc. - you have one shot at finding your way. It’s a cloudless day and you have an excellent view of the terrain - not, in fact, unlike [this](http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=41.771312,-26.015625&spn=118.942177,239.0625&t=k&z=2). So - can you do it? Can you descend directly home without having to zoom back out or drag the map? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/2 "2008-04-17T11:13:25Z")
So you mean I should drag the map once, centering it on my home, and then zoom in and see if I’m right? If so, I blew it and landed in western Ukraine instead of southern Sweden. Let’s hope they speak English in Chernivitsi. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/3 "2008-04-17T11:20:25Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] So you mean I should drag the map once, centering it on my home, and then zoom in and see if I’m right? If so, I blew it and landed in western Ukraine instead of southern Sweden. Let’s hope they speak English in Chernivitsi. [/QUOTE] The zoom centres on your mouse pointer (if you have a mouse wheel), so you shouldn’t even need an initial drag… (so you can tweak the destination just by moving the mouse in between zooms) ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/4 "2008-04-17T11:22:12Z")
Oh, I’m allowed to zoom by mouse-click? That’s way easy. I just landed in my back yard, upsetting the rabbits. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/5 "2008-04-17T11:23:03Z")
I kept double-clicking on the point that I thought was home, and ended centered on Mount Vernon, Ohio, 89 miles by road from my house, probably about 70 miles as the flying saucer flies. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/6 "2008-04-17T11:23:48Z")
Pah, I ended up in Wolverhampton. Train to Birmingham then train up to Macclesfield, not too bad I guess! ---
**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:** [April 17, 2008, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/7 "2008-04-17T11:25:17Z")
If you click on a particular point, it wil centre on that point automatically. I didn’t quite make it, but landing at the airport half a mile away is vastly more sensible anyway, don’t you think? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/8 "2008-04-17T11:30:33Z")
I think **Mangetout** suggests not moving the mouse - just zooming in from the first mouse position (you can do it with the mouse wheel). I got somwhere north of Birmingham - about 80 miles out. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/9 "2008-04-17T11:34:46Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] I think **Mangetout** suggests not moving the mouse - just zooming in from the first mouse position (you can do it with the mouse wheel). [/QUOTE] No, you can move the mouse to zoom in on a different region in the displayed rectangle, what you can’t do is drag the map to reveal a region not currently displayed on it, or zoom out, then back in somewhere else. In short, if you find yourself having zoomed in to an area that doesn’t contain your home, you’re walking. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/10 "2008-04-17T11:51:02Z")
I landed on a farm in Somerset, so I’ll have to hitch a lift back to Bristol. I told the farmer it was just a newfangled weather balloon, so no cause for concern. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/11 "2008-04-17T11:51:09Z")
Smack dab in the driveway. Austin is pretty easy from the air. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/12 "2008-04-17T12:03:36Z")
Yep, no problem. I guess it’s easier being on a small island like Great Britain, rather than in the middle of a featureless Midwestern plain or something. From an early age I learnt to pinpoint my home town on a map of the UK - “up from sticky-out point A on the south coast, and left from sticky-in point B on the east coast”. Where the lines cross is my house. I’ve played about with Google Maps enough to recognise the patterns near my house - of course, whether it would actually look the same from my spaceship is another matter! There’s an airfield a mile or so from my house, too, which would be easy to spot from the air (I hope!) ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/13 "2008-04-17T12:07:30Z")
I spent a few minutes trying to figure out how you all could tell where exactly you’d landed, until I tried it with my hometown in California and discovered that if you don’t live in total BFE like me, Google Earth comes with _labels_. Wow, fancy. So I’m not _exactly_ sure of how close I got to my village, but I’m pretty sure it was quite close. It helps that I live in a narrow valley, so it’s easy to pick out. Incidentally, if I tried to get to Petaluma, CA, I’d apparently end up in Santa Rosa instead. That’s okay. It’s only about twenty miles, so I could probably find my way home eventually. Or I’d just go visit **psycat90**. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/14 "2008-04-17T12:08:02Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] I think **Mangetout** suggests not moving the mouse - just zooming in from the first mouse position (you can do it with the mouse wheel). [/QUOTE] The problem is, there seems to be a shift when you just use the scroll wheel. Using that method, Massachusetts kept drifting west, and I would end up in the middle of the ocean. However, using **Mangetout** ’s double-clicking method, no problem. It helps that even from way out in space, you can get your bearings using Cape Cod. ---
**Author:** ![Lunar\_Saltlick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@Lunar\_Saltlick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lunar_Saltlick)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/15 "2008-04-17T12:12:48Z")
I barely had to move the mouse, let alone the map. Landed in the neighbor’s pool, thirty-five feet from my bedroom. I must confess, however, that Google Maps and Earth are an even bigger time-suck than the Dope, so I’ve had practice. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/16 "2008-04-17T12:19:27Z")
On the roof. Good thing it’s flat! ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/17 "2008-04-17T12:29:35Z")
I have no trouble, but the map does what it always does. I can only focus on the city of Portage filling the screen, because they don’t have a better image resolution. Finding my home when starting like this is easy. Certain features always allow for locating at different altitudes. First the Great Lakes, then the rivers, and then the highways. ---
**Author:** ![fervour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@fervour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fervour)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/18 "2008-04-17T12:30:16Z")
No problem. But I’m only about 70 miles from the U.S. gulf coast as the crow flies. I’m sure that’s a lot easier to find than somewhere in the center of a continent. ---
**Author:** ![puppygod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@puppygod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puppygod)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/19 "2008-04-17T12:36:48Z")
Easily. Exactly at my parking spot. Now, if I really were abducted, I wouldn’t go home, but instead choose Roswell, and crashed that thing hard. Take that stupid alien! Our scientist can do anal probing too! ---
**Author:** ![Wallflower](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Wallflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallflower)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706/20 "2008-04-17T12:51:25Z")
I have no trouble finding my town, but like **Harmonious Discord** , I zoom in too close and it tells me “We are sorry, but we don’t have imagery at this zoom level.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-find-your-home-starting-from-orbit/445706.md?page=2)