IceInSpace Member Map!

[iceman]

Hey guys.

A friend of mine, mojo, who I know from my online gaming days has an interest in astronomy and is often my sounding board for a lot of the stuff I do with the site or forums. He's not a very regular visitor or contributor, but he's just come up with a great idea for the site/forums.

The IceInSpace Member Map!

I've added 2 fields to the member profile page, where new and existing members can enter their latitude and longitude.

Using this information, and a map of Australia/NZ/the world, i'll plot everyone's location on the map so you can see where people are, where they're observing from, etc.

I think it'd make for an interesting graphic!

If you don't know your lat/long info, search for it by choosing your country and entering your town (http://www.heavens-above.com/countries.asp).

And then change your profile (http://www.iceinspace.com/forum/member.php?action=editprofile).

Obviously it's only going to work if people enter their information.. it's optional but I hope everyone takes part!

Thanks

[ballaratdragons]

I was going to draw a map marking everyone on it just for my own interest.

Your idea is better. Ta Mike. I'll do my Lat/Long now.

___________________________________ ___

Done! and accurate to within 5k.
___________________________________ ___

Just re-entered different co-ordinates to within 500m. For a country town that's pretty damn close.

[Striker]

Done.........oh no you know where I live.......I'm getting extra security....hehe

Restraining order has been put out on Ving...effective immediately

[iceman]

Also, please try to be as accurate as you can, rather than just using the nearest city. It'll make for a better map.

[ving]

yeah now i'll steal your scope for stealing my smilie :P

i'll do it later today :)

[rmcpb]

Done :)

[thomo]

Another place you can find your lat & long (as the above site didn't have my suburb):

http://www.heavens-above.com/countries.asp

[ving]

done...
right to my driveway (give or take 3m)

[rumples riot]

Have done it. The other link was quite good, some really interesting stuff and predictions of objects.

[silvinator]

I've just done it too. My suburb was actually found on the link you posted Mike. I'm very surprised at that. Can't wait to see the results.

[RAJAH235]

Done. Picked closest town to Ob. site.

[Comet Hunter]

Updated. Will it have a mouse over type feature showing who is at that location or just a generic map with dots?

[Sounder]

Done. Great idea.

[gbeal]

Done as well, neat idea Ice. You were in the bath when you thought of this? (just checking where you hatch these great ideas)?
Gary

[Orion]

I'm in, (good idea).

[Starkler]

Done.

So when can we see the map ?

[Vermin]

Is the info entered in decimal fractions of a degree or hours and minutes?

i.e HH.hh or HH.mm ?

[RAJAH235]

Now we all know where Mike does his most serious thinking, don't we? :zzz:

[ballaratdragons]

Mike,

I have just used the site Thomo provided and got a different lat/long.

One said: Lat 37s41, Long 143e34 within 5 k

Other said: Lat -37.617 Long 143.583 within 500m

1st one has 's' & 'e' in it.

2nd has 'minus symbol' and decimal points.

Don't know which one to use.

[iceman]

I'm not really fussed whether you use decimal point notation, or minute/second notation.

Mojo and I haven't come up with the nitty gritty about how it will actually work yet, I imagine i'll just write a query to extract the information from the database and someone plot it on a map.

Hopefully it will have a popup of the member name when you hover over it.. at least, that would be nice :P

Thanks for the support!

[mojo]

gee Michael. I just can't wait to see you write this script. :D

[ballaratdragons]

Hi Mojo,

I think you and Mike have created a monster. Have lots of fun putting it together. The final result will look great.

:2thumbs:

[Rodstar]

I'm locked in too. Looking forward to seeing that map...given the growing international contingent this could get very interesting!

Rodstar

[iceman]

So he comes out of the woodwork! back in your box tex! :D

Silent partner, remember? :P

[mch62]

Mine is in Iceman

[iceman]

On second thoughts, to make it easier please enter your lat/long in the following format:

Lat: -33.4
Long: 151.6

etc

That is, use decimal notation and use - sign for south, and no - sign for east.

You may find that some of them have been updated already.

Thanks

[iceman]

If everyone uses heavens-above to get the information, you'll get it in the right format.

http://www.heavens-above.com/countries.asp

I'll edit my original post in this thread.

[ving]

when do we see the results!!! :)

[mojo]

when Mike learns SQL :P

[iceman]

Oi there was nothing wrong with the query I gave you! :poke: :fight:

Tex (mojo) is on the case Ving.. he loves a side project :D

[Vermin]

I've just put my town in for the moment, but will update it to my observing site with a GPS fix next time I go out.

[Striker]

Can I be a pink Dot Mike......the others can be plain white.....

[Swamp Fox]

Ok. Mike,
The Lat and Lon for my home are now recorded in my profile. The reading comes from satalite images of my subdivision in which my house is quite visible so it should be accurate. But, you're gonna need a big map to plot me along with you folks there in Oz.
Dan:astron:

[iceman]

You won't be forgotten Dan, along with the other non-aus/nz members. I promise! :D

[rumples riot]

Well, I am in according to that set of co ords on homeland.

[ving]

so i take it that this map will have a zoom feature?

[Striker]

Dont be silly Ving......

The site has linked itself to all satelites and will track everyone 24/7 to the meter.....but no zoom feature.....to high tech.

[[1ponders]]

Mike are you automatically picking up changes to site long/lat. If not I've changed mine. Nambour was in danger of drowning as I'd put it a couple of 100 miles off the coast:doh::P :fishing:

[iceman]

haha I noticed Paul, you were out in the ocean :P

Don't worry, Ian is up in singapore somewhere too :D

[mojo]

awww. Paul changed his position. When I wrote the conversion routine I had to check to see if it was correct. It was. But then I was impressed that you live on a house-boat in the pacific. How boring... you're back on the green bit of the map.

[astrodave]

Great idea Ice.

Finding your position is made easy for us Victorians thanks to the Vic Govt.

http://services.land.vic.gov.au/landchannel/content/interactivemap

Zoom in on the map or enter your address and you get land title dimensions. Move the cursor and in the status line it shows both Map reference and Lat/Long of your cursor point..

[Rodstar]

Time for this thread to get updated with all our new members' locations?

[mswhin63]

Hi All,

Anyone know how to change Lat and Long in the profile. Have placed multiple locations but still reads my old location in Perth. Also, the timezone is still for Perth and not Adelaide.

Cheers

[blindman]

Got much better idea - to make feedback on sellers / buyers so to avoid dodgy members selling underquality or broken things.
Must mentioned though I don't have any bad experience selling or buying things on IIS.