Toytown Germany

Last year we posted links to two high resolution photos of Munich as taken by the Ikonos satellite (see: entire city and the city center). Recently, however, we came across a newer version via European Space Imaging. The clarity of this one is just awesome. If you live in Munich you will easily be able to find your house on this photo. Be warned though, it is a 54Mb file so will take a long time to download. Here are a few small subsections which show some of the more famous landmarks: Marienplatz, Olympiapark, Seehaus beer garden, and the Deutsches Museum. Also, if you're interested in the historical perspective, check out these two maps from the 19th century: 1800 and 1858. A third, and even better one, is the map from 1853.

Thanks to Sin for discovering some of these links.

See also the TT chat forum topic: Historic maps of Munich



SpaceImaging.com has two high resolutions photos of Munich from space. The first is a wide-view, 5 meter resolution image collected by the Indian Remote Sensing satellite. It shows the English Garden, the Olympia Stadium, the Oktoberfest area, Nymphenburg Castle, Central Station, and the Old City of Munich. The second is a narrow-view, 1 meter resolution of the city center and shows Marienplatz, the Rathaus, the Hofbräuhaus, the Viktualienmarkt, and the Hofgarten. To see the images, ...

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/munich/munich-from-space.jpg[/img]

Wide View:
High resolution copies here:
Space Imaging :: Munich City

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/uploads/post-1-1082533761.jpg[/img]

Narrow View:
High resolution copies here:
Space Imaging :: Munich Center

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/uploads/post-1-1082533792.jpg[/img]

Also, courtesy of InflatableWoman, here's a picture showing the layout of Munich in the year 1800. Presumably this picture was not taken from space. Click the image for a full size version with legend.

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/munich/stockdale_1800_munchen_low.jpg[/img]

Just don't use the 54MB picture as your Windows desktop - because even the fastest machine will slow to a crawl. DOH. Can't believe I am so StUpiD.

also try: http://www.ausderluft.de satellite pictures from many cities in germany!

I can't find any high resolution pictures of the whole Munich picture (not only the center), the highest resolution I found is 1024x768...

http://www.dlr.de/caf/satellitendaten/miss..._10685x9166.jpg

I have spoken to the DLR who have the copywrite to the pictures. They have them as posters to sell for 1€. The only catch being they don't post them. You have to collect it and they are between Weßling and Herrsching. Public Transport to them is difficult.

I am leaving Munch in December/January after almost 11 years in Munich and will taking one with me.

My Dad works for DLR so I could get him to bring a couple of posters for people?

The highest resolution spy satellite is the KH-13. It can see objects as small as 4cm, for example something the size of a credit card.

KH is an aconym for "Key Hole". The KH-13 is operated by the US security agencies and is shrouded in secrecy. Indeed, it's very existence is not even officially acknowledged. The best resolution is thought to be between 10cm and 4cm, but may be higher or lower.

More info here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-13

The newest Ikonos image of Munich, as linked above, has a resolution of 1 meter. This makes it 10x to 40x less detailed than images which could be taken by the most powerful spy satellites currently in operation.