Great satellite/aerial image website.

Does everyone know about this site? I went to it after I saw a post about it on the nhrhta forum. The bird's eye view feature is absolutely amazing. Its 10x better than your standard satellite photo. I spent the better part of last night exploring certain "off limits" areas, like the east end of E. Deerfield yard, N. Billerica, Quincy Shipyard and others. While on the bird's eye view, double click to navigate an individual photo, or select an adjoining photo. Then click north, south, east, or west to rotate the camera's viewing angle.

http://local.live.com/
http://local.live.com/

It must be down right now because nothing happens when I type in a city and state. But is it better than google map's satellite photos?

This is a new beta service from Microsoft. For some reason it does not work in the Safari browser, but it does in Firefox.

Its working on my computer as of now. The standard satellite photos are nothing spectacular. Its the bird's eye view feature that puts it over the top.
The photos are taken from the air but at an angle so you can see the sides of buildings, and even clearly see the paint schemes on locos and cars. Then you can rotate the camera angle to view the other sides of the buildings/trains. Though the trains generally change when you switch angles, as the photos were taken at different times. I was following the Randolph secondary when I stumbled across 2 csx engines, clear as day, swithching the distibutor in the industrial park. Also cool was the coal dealer siding in braintree that I never got to see, as it was recently demolished during greenbush contruction. High speed internet may make the difference.

I just checked it out in firefox. Navigating is really.... odd. The only thing I see that makes it good is the zoom level is so close. Really close. Like, close enough that if that site ever gets popular, people will complain.

Also the photos are old, I got rid of the car in my driveway in 2002

I've been using it for a while, for North Jersey, New York, and (when reminded in this board awhile back) Philadelphia. You can save certain views as Pushpins, and hence post the coordinate as a URL - I did that in the NY forum when I asked a question about the Staten Island Arthur Kill power plant.
Alas, coverage is somewhat spotty outside of certain areas (I cannot get Western Nassau, where I live - coverage east from Queens stops about 1/2 mile down Sunrise).

Hmmm, loo8comm has a point - maybe I better start taking screenshots of Philly and the NJ chemical coast and Western Queens etc. before Livelocal gets in big trouble - even if a bit outdated on some pictures those aerial shots at 20yard (well, metres really) are fantasic for Railfans and Modellers alike!

http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2& ... MA%2001069 is this the coal siding you were reffering to?

Yep thats the one. Always meant to check it out. It would have been perfect to model. They even have one of those old conveyor loaders. But by the time I got around to it. Gone it was. All that remains are the concrete supports. I knew they would probably take the switch out during construction, assuming the spur was no longer active. Didn't think they would take the rails and deck with it. wonder why? oh well. Thats why I was glad to see a somewhat detailed image of it on local.live. Wonder when it was last used?

Anyone know what happened to this feature? The site has changed, and I can't find any maps.

http://local.live.com/