Map Skills

Jack Harrison · Post by **Jack Harrison** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:11 pm

Maps can really enhance the butterfly experience. I am very much a “map person” myself and with the aid of a map, I NEVER get lost. However, without a map, I can struggle. I lose my way and can’t find the correct exit in a large store such as John Lewis (much to the amusement of my family: "Did you get lost when you were a pilot?") We are all different; some are good at some things, bad at others. And vice-versa.

I appreciate that some on this group struggle with, for example Map References. These are invaluable as a short-hand way of pinpointing a locality.

Ordnance Survey has an excellent tutorial “Map Reading made easy”
http://leisure.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/lei ... e_easy.pdf

I would get far less from my butterflying if I couldn’t use maps. The tutorial is well worth studying. As the title says, it isn’t really difficult.

Ordnance Survey maps – the benchmark standard – are available online fro:
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap/
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/
http://www.multimap.com/

And don't forget the satellite/aerial images from for example, Google:
http://maps.google.co.uk/

Jack

Post by **Padfield** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:30 pm

I totally agree, Jack. And good maps are more than just useful - they're works of beauty, craftsmanship and precision. I love them. I never travel without a map and compass.

I didn't know Ordnance Survey made their maps available online. The official Swiss maps are also available electronically (for a price - currently CHF 179 for each region, equivalent to over 40 1:25000 individual maps). You can print off precisely the bit you want, at whatever scale you want, or (as I often do) download the image files to a PDA.

Bit of trivia: All the reputable map companies deliberately put navigationally insignificant mistakes in their maps. That way, they can detect others passing off their cartography as their own. Occasionally you can discover these mistakes - a tree the wrong side of a bridge &c.

As I'm sure most people know, Google Earth 'pushpins' can be e-mailed. I find this a very useful and visually satisfying way of sharing locations: find the exact place in Google Earth, stick in a pushpin, add a few comments or descriptive notes and then e-mail the pushpin. On double clicking on the attachment, the recipient will see his own Google Earth open at the designated locality.

Guy

Post by **Pete Eeles** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:18 pm

The pushpins are brilliant - and a Google Earth version of the sites listed on UKB can be downloaded from:

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/sites_googleearth.php

The TomTom version is massively out of date, unfortunately.

Cheers,

- Pete

Rogerdodge · Post by **Rogerdodge** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 8:46 am

The TomTom version is massively out of date, unfortunately.

Ok Pete - hint taken.

Watch this space (in about 2 weeks) !!

Roger

Post by **Pete Eeles** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:33 am

Rogerdodge wrote:
The TomTom version is massively out of date, unfortunately.
Ok Pete - hint taken.

Watch this space (in about 2 weeks) !!

Roger

Sorry Roger - that wasn't meant to be a prod!

Cheers,

- Pete

Rogerdodge · Post by **Rogerdodge** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:00 am

Pete
No apology needed. I am "On the case" as we speak.
All I have to do now is c&p species in and it is done.
If the weather doesn't improve I may get it finished today.

Jack
I also adore maps, and can actually spend hours just looking at them.
I have drawers full of OS maps (and others) sometimes bought when I was making just a single visit to an area!
I frequently buy maps when abroad, and quickly learned that we have, with the OS, the best mapping in the world.
Other good sites for mapping are
http://wheresthepath.googlepages.com/wheresthepath.htm
http://maps.the-hug.net/index.php
These both let you plan routes and then download them to a GPS device. The first one allows it on an aerial photograph allowing planning of routes in areas where the path may not be mapped but visible on a photograph. (e.g. Braunton Burrows in North Devon)
Whilst I still use them, and rarely wander out without a map and compass, I have a new toy!!
http://www.satmap.com/index.php
This fantastic GPS shows your position on an actual OS map.
I have the whole of the UK loaded at 1:50,000 scale, and Devon and Cornwall at 1:25,000.
It's accuracy is astonishing.
I only got it just before Christmas, but I reckon for plotting, storing and re-finding and locations of colonies of butterflies, It may be very useful.
Roger

Jack Harrison · Post by **Jack Harrison** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:15 am

Roger:

I also adore maps, and can actually spend hours just looking at them.

I have had to move several times in my life (career moves) and the first thing I have always done is get the OS maps for the new area. Both my present house here on the high ground of South Cambridgeshire and the previous one in North Yorkshire, were found after studying maps and homing in on the more interesting areas. Now that Google aerial/satellite images are available, there is even more scope.

But I need help. My local meadows at TL425395 (where Marbled Whites colonized in 2007) show up superbly on the Google aerial images. But how do I place a pushpin? Searching for help, and I come across terms like API with no apparent explanation as to what that means.

Jack

KeynvorLogosenn · Post by **KeynvorLogosenn** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:03 am

Are you using Google Earth on your PC Jack, or are you using Google Maps on the internet?
On the internet maps, you need to have a google account. You can see what I mean when you find the place that you want, by typing it in, then on the bubble thing you click 'Save to My Maps'

I think API stands for application programm interface, but someone else with a better understand would probably correct me on that one!

There is another map thing that allows you to use the pushpin idea, and that is Microsoft Live Maps, I have no idea of the quality of the Map, but I know you can mark places. If you want to have a look at it, then go to www.live.co.uk and click on maps. I believe it is on the left-hand-side you can type the location you want, then on the bubble click 'save'. You can add a discribtion and things, then hit 'Confirm'. When you want to view your list of saved places, on the Left-Hand-Side near the bottom, there is a thing called 'favourite routes and places', click that and there are all you saved places.
I know that one isn't google, but you can use pushpins without an account.

Happy Mapping

Jack Harrison · Post by **Jack Harrison** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:11 am

Are you using Google Earth on your PC Jack, or are you using Google Maps on the internet?

Google Maps on Internet. I used to have Google Earth but didn't bother to reinstall after a re-format. I hadn't appreciated that there was a difference. So I will get Google Earth again.

Jack

Jack Harrison · Post by **Jack Harrison** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:46 am

Google Earth now re-installed and have made a pushpin for my local patch. 23 regular species + Clouded Yellow once + Wall Brown formerly + almost certainly Purple and W.L. Hairstreaks (not located yet)

If I have understood correctly, you can let others see your pushpins only if you upload the image to a website. I have done so on mine.

http://s214580749.websitehome.co.uk/pho ... eadows.jpg

Roger. Your toy looks excellent but a bit too pricey for me. I should be able to afford it but to justify to wife is another matter even though I got an unexpected tax rebate recently that would more than cover the cost. I also had a "near miss" with a faulty dishwasher that at one point looked like it needed replacing but thanks to kindly Bosch, a faulty heating element was replaced. But I fear that my computer is getting creaky as the wireless card seems to have given up the ghost, so a possibly expense there. The other computers in the house can all get wireless, so it can't be the router and has to be a problem with my laptop

Jack

Post by **Pete Eeles** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 12:22 pm

Rogerdodge wrote:Pete
No apology needed. I am "On the case" as we speak.
All I have to do now is c&p species in and it is done.
If the weather doesn't improve I may get it finished today.

If you want a spreadsheet (or whatever) with the site information in, just let me know (and format required!).

Cheers,

- Pete

Post by **Padfield** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 3:50 pm

jackharr wrote:If I have understood correctly, you can let others see your pushpins only if you upload the image to a website.

No, you can e-mail the pushpin itself directly to anyone with Google Earth. You can also post the pushpin on a website. If you click on the link below, for example, you should eventually be led to my house on your own copy of Google Earth (I say 'eventually' because you may have to double-click on a file within a compressed folder to open it - just keep agreeing to 'open').

http://www.guypadfield.com/myhouse.kmz

Guy

Jack Harrison · Post by **Jack Harrison** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 4:44 pm

I just figured out how to send an e-mail with a location and pushpin which, when received by someone with Google Earth, can be opened and then zoomed as required. But how do I do similar with a zoomable link on my own website that can then be accessed via a browser as you have done? I am perfectly familiar with putting jpegs on my webpages, but this kmz suffix is beating me at present. I can't seem to save it into my website. I use Mozilla Kompozer (no need to understand html with Kompozer)

Jack

Post by **Pete Eeles** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:15 pm

rogerdodge has kindly updated the TomTom support. See:

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/sites_tomtom.php

Cheers,

- Pete

Post by **Pete Eeles** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:17 pm

jackharr wrote:I just figured out how to send an e-mail with a location and pushpin which, when received by someone with Google Earth, can be opened and then zoomed as required. But how do I do similar with a zoomable link on my own website that can then be accessed via a browser as you have done? I am perfectly familiar with putting jpegs on my webpages, but this kmz suffix is beating me at present. I can't seem to save it into my website. I use Mozilla Kompozer (no need to understand html with Kompozer)

Jack

Hi Jack - I had exactly the same problem a while back, but I think this was in terms of people accessing the file, rather than uploading the file. Anyway, the UK Butterflies website has a file named ".htaccess" at the root, that contains the following entries:

AddType application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml kml
AddType application/vnd.google-earth.kmz kmz

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

- Pete

Jack Harrison · Post by **Jack Harrison** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:40 pm

Anyway, the UK Butterflies website has a file named ".htaccess" at the root, that contains the following entries:

AddType application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml kml
AddType application/vnd.google-earth.kmz kmz

Hope it helps!

Thanks Pete, but you seriously overestimate my ability (techno savvy). I cannot begin to usnerstand what that means.

Anyway, I've managed so far without the ability to use pushpins. It just looks a bit of fun, that's all. Would be nice to be able to do these things but not really vital.

Jack

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