Google Earth placemarks

[Grahame]

(two topics merged 10/18 - GG)


Some great placemarks are available for Google Earth that are of interest to dowsers. I've started this thread to provide a place to post interesting ones that you might turn up.

Firstly, the Becker-Hagens Unified Vector Grid is available as a Google Earth placemark that overlays the various grids on Google Earth!
If you haven't already got Google Earth (it's free, but you'll need broadband), you can get it by clicking here.

Then there's The Megalithic Portal placemark file of over 16000 sites around the world.

And a placemark is also available for all the sites listed by The Modern Antiquarian.

[Grahame]

Having discovered the Becker-Hagens grid placemark for Google Earth (see this post), I've discovered that in Google Earth 4 it is not only possible to mark places, you can also draw your own paths between them. This means that you can effectively map out alignments between sites right there in Google Earth.
Personally, I've been waiting for years to see software like this; it means we can map out leys for our own areas (or ones we know), and pretty soon we have enough information to have a national (or hey, why not global?) ley map!

If anyone wants to get involved in this, there's a tutorial on line drawing here.

Keep us posted here on what area you're tackling (I'm busy on Glasgow and Central Scotland at the moment), and in the meantime I'll try and figure out some way of getting all the placemark files uploaded somewhere so they can be collated.
**edit 7/10/07- I'll put these on a special page on the EEG website. Still working on my own placemarks or I would have done this already!

More details to come...

[Ian Pegler]

I notice this page mentions KMZ files. A KMZ file is a KML file which has been zipped.

I think that my latest post (concerning GPS Babel) on this thread might be relevant to all this.

Hope this helps

Ian

[Grahame]

I notice this page mentions KMZ files. A KMZ file is a KML file which has been zipped.

Yes, I'm not sure whether it's best to post these placemarks as a kmz or a kml file, but as far as I can tell both Google Maps and Google Earth support both formats.
What I'm really having trouble with is getting the network link function to work. I'm sure I can build it into the placemarks so that every time you open one it will check for an updated version; yet every time I try this it goes horribly pear-shaped and I end up with infinitely nested directories. The KML reference could be clearer on this topic. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. I think it's to do with my folder structure in the placemarks.

I have uploaded my latest offering, 'Labyrinths of the British Isles' to the page. This has taken me some months of work, trying to get the BalloonStyle formatting to function correctly. It's not easy when you try to do fancy stuff! Next task is to make some custom icons for this one. **edit - just updated this with the custom icons and a few new labyrinths that I found.**
The link is here: this page.

[Grahame]

NASA have just released a Google Earth placemark that might be of interest - it overlays a real-time (updated every 10 minutes) picture of the Earth's ionosphere. Could be handy if you want to do any ongoing research comparing earth energies with atmospheric activity..?

The ionosphere is the final layer of atmosphere before space. This highly dynamic region is constantly exposed to the full intensity of the Sun, harsh ultraviolet radiation breaking down molecules and atoms. Highly charged ions and free electrons therefore fill the ionospheric layers. Critical to terrestrial communications, the ionosphere also plays host to the largest lightshow on Earth, the Aurora. Now NASA-funded research has developed a live "4D Ionosphere" plugin for Google Earth. Now you can fly through the atmosphere's uppermost reaches without even leaving your desk…

Full story and Google Earth link: Universe Today.

[Vapour Trail]

Hi everyone. I'm reasonably new to re-linking with earth energies, and have recently started dowsing again with rods and pendulum. I have become interested in discovering the leys that exist in the North West of the country in particular (including North Wales & Anglesey).

For those of you who live up this way, I have created a Google Map that I am using to verify landmarks and sites on what I am calling the Northern East-West ley (boring name - any better suggestions?) which appears to run from at least as far east as the Nine Ladies stone circle at Stanton Moor in Derbyshire, across to the southern tip of Anglesey (possibly it stop on Caernarvon, I'm not sure yet).

If you wish to assist, or just want to have a peek at my suppositions as to locations and sites, then visit this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&m ... 256710c6c6 (link broken)

As you will see, I have also drawn a line from Arbor Low which goes north-west up to around Fleetwood. Most of this in unverified as yet, but has some interesting alignments. If anyone has done some dowsing work at any of these sites please post a response. I would be delighted to hear what you have to say!

Vapour Trail.

[Grahame]

Hi Vapour Trail, welcome to the forum.

I've moved your post into this thread as it seems more relevant to what you're doing. I'm glad to see someone else getting interested in this area - keep it up! I will add your placemark to the EEG website links page (link broken) when I get a spare minute.

[Vapour Trail]

Thank you very much. I realised the moment I posted it that it was likely to be in the wrong forum. Thanks for spotting that.

[royaberarth]

Grahame

Does this involve Google Earth plus or will the standard version suffice - I've only just seen this and not got my head round drawing paths yet then I'll join in.

I take it this was the grid you showed us at Great Salkeld?

Roy carpenter

[Grahame]

Hi Roy;

Yes, you can do it on the standard (free) version of Google Earth. The Becker-Hagens grid placemark is the one I showed you at Great Salkeld. You can get it via the links earlier in this thread.
It's not too difficult to mark lines and points and create a basic placemark file, but it does get a bit tricky if you want to do fancy stuff like include pictures and hyperlinks in the placemarks. It took me a good few days rooting around the Google help files and tutorials before I figured it out. The labyrinths file was a particular nightmare because of the BalloonStyle formatting. But very rewarding when you get it all to work.

[Grahame]

For those of you who live up this way, I have created a Google Map that I am using to verify landmarks and sites on what I am calling the Northern East-West ley

Vapour Trail, your link seems to have disappeared. I can't get it in either Google Maps or Google Earth.

[Grahame]

I've just started working on the classic 'Watkinsonian' leys in The Ley Hunters Companion, as listed on The Society of Ley Hunters' website. I should have the "rough cut" ready in a few days.

**edit - this placemark is now available! Click here to go to the download page. At the moment it's the "no frills" version so there's very little commentary or pictures, but it's a start!

[simonwheeler]

Excellent Grahame...clever stuff.

[Grahame]

Excellent Grahame...clever stuff.

Not that clever. Clever is when I figure out how to embed Google Earth (or Maps) into the web page (which you can do now). Or even when I get the other links to show in Google Maps, which they are refusing to do at the moment... but thank you for the compliment.

[Ian Pegler]

As a point of interest, sometime ago I published a small article in the West Wales Dowsers newsletter about an alignment of pubs, all of which are called "The Sun".

More recently, when I extended this line southwards I discovered that this alignment was pretty much an extension of the Dinedor ley although it isn't exactly the same. Nevertheless it whistles past All Saints Church by a few yards, goes through Hereford Cathedral on the western edge and through Dinedor Camp on the west side. It goes through Ross on Wye and over Leys Hill.

It was a source of amusement (and a little amazement) for me that this "arbitrary" alignment of pubs should be an extension pretty much, of a ley discovered so long ago by Alfred Watkins !!

Ian