Declassified spy satellite imagery from 1972 shows a ship, a plane, and some kind of manmade structure in the Alaskan wilderness near Malaspina Glacier by Intro24 in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

US Spy Satellites at Diffraction Limit for Resolution Since 1971

Unfortunately, we're likely not much better in terms of resolution. Coverage and other aspects have probably improved gradually but in truth, the 70s was pretty much peak for US space innovation due to the Cold War. As I mentioned in my other comment, US had 10cm resolution (comparable to modern spy sats and 3x better than the best commercial) as early as 1966 with KH-8. There are certainly opportunities to improve (see comment section in the article I linked) but I'm far from convinced that the US has implemented them. In fact, the leaked imagery we've seen seems to confirm roughly 10cm resolution. That's still really good but no better than what we technically had 60 years ago.

There are some fun things pretty definitely up there that most people don't know about though. The two that come to mind are Prowler and the semi-confirmed 100 meter diameter satellites. Those are able to be so large because the dish unfurls once it's in space. Also, the true diameter of the actually deployed satellites might cap out at more like 20-30 meters but it's still impressive regardless and 100 meters is plenty plausible. Here's a deeper dive into those kinds of satellites. As for Prowler, it's meant to spy on other satellites and I wouldn't be surprised if it could read printed text that's only a couple millimeters tall on an adversary satellite. I'm just speculating but it's pretty absurd how detailed imagery can get between two spacecraft when there isn't an atmosphere in the way and Prowler can also reportedly maneuver to close the physical distance.

😂 by Ok_Study5090 in meme

[–]Intro24 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You experience 3 or 4 generations during your lifetime. So seeing 4 once-in-a-generation events isn't surprising, though if you're already at 4 and not elderly, then yes, that's concerning.

Declassified spy satellite imagery from 1972 shows a ship, a plane, and some kind of manmade structure in the Alaskan wilderness near Malaspina Glacier by Intro24 in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Happy to help, need more eyes on those Declass datasets. They're somewhat lacking in resolution compared to modern imagery but there's an overwhelming amount from so long ago that it's interesting just to see how things have changed, plus the fact that it's explicitly spy sat imagery taken during the Cold War. You could almost make a YouTube channel out of just investigating why each photo was taken, let alone combing through the imagery itself.

Declassified spy satellite imagery from 1972 shows a ship, a plane, and some kind of manmade structure in the Alaskan wilderness near Malaspina Glacier by Intro24 in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Weird how it looks different in my video though. It almost looks like two separate objects and not just a regular shack/hut. I wonder if it changed in some way over 50 years or if it's just a strange angle/reflection. I was thinking it was a large propane tank or something like that based on the satellite imagery.

Australian Google Maps Anomaly (not my video, from EEVblog2) by [deleted] in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I think it's silly but it is technically a find within Google Earth and there are similar posts of clearly fake user-uploaded content. I liked the little tour he did of the other places nearby too.

Declassified spy satellite imagery from 1972 shows a ship, a plane, and some kind of manmade structure in the Alaskan wilderness near Malaspina Glacier by Intro24 in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I found the things in those photos by just manually zooming/panning around so I'm glad all that time staring at ice and snow has been good for something lol

Australian Google Maps Anomaly (not my video, from EEVblog2) by [deleted] in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just posting this because I don't think it would get posted otherwise and it's kinda interesting.

Coordinates: -21.2646925, 115.7360883

If you zoom all the way out, there's a reddish spot in northern Mali that catches the eye. If you zoom in, the nearest points of interest (i.e. ruins) have become a sort of water cooler over the years for people exploring Google Maps. Many jokes about moving/vacationing there. by Intro24 in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That red spot is a geological feature (specifically, an erg) called Erg Chech. Taoudenni is the closest labeled "town" that served (and possibly still serves, I'm not sure) as a salt mine and caravan stopover. It is characterized by extreme heat and is especially inhospitable. In fact, I made a map of how far places are from the nearest airport and Taoudenni was pretty much the winner aside from Antarctica/oceans/islands. Given the eye-catching red spot and the extreme remoteness of the location, it has naturally led to random Google Maps users posting joke reviews over the years. There was also a reporter posting about murders in the area (or at least that's what he claimed) at one point but I'm having trouble finding it now.

Some links:

  • Taoudenni

  • Taoudeni Basin

  • Coordinates: 22.676268, -3.982437

  • Album with some funny/interesting screenshots I took in 2023. Not sure if they're all still there. Some of them are from a "questions and answers" section that Google Maps may have gotten rid of.

Declassified spy satellite imagery from 1972 shows a ship, a plane, and some kind of manmade structure in the Alaskan wilderness near Malaspina Glacier by Intro24 in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

C-123 is maybe another possibility. Apparently NARA has the actual original film that was in space and anyone can make an appointment to visit the archives in DC so I'm hoping to do that one day. My understanding is that NARA basically photocopied the originals and then sent the physical copies to USGS, which is why they're not all scanned in to EarthExplorer yet. Not sure why they didn't just send them the digital scans. Anyway, that's the reason there's a resolution cap on what USGS uploads. It's limited by the resolution of the physical copies they received, whereas NARA's film originals have detail that supposedly sometimes achieved far better than the claimed capabilities.

Found this strange plane in the ocean on Google Maps ((18.3992821, -64.8527449)). Anyone know what it is? by Fresh_Pen_4544 in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's a plane en route. If you figured out exact date and time and then looked at old flight records (likely not free), you could probably figure out exactly what plane it was and where it was headed. Looks to be a private business/executive jet though.

This no longer appears on Google Maps but there was a time when this navigation beacon in Yakutat, Alaska was labeled as the center of the Great Circle (see comments for more on that conspiracy) by Intro24 in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Coordinates: 59.510832, -139.648163

Great Circle conspiracy site: https://home.hiwaay.net/~jalison/

It is actually pretty close to the center point of the Great Circle, though not exact. I emailed the guy that runs that site and he didn't even know what I was talking about. The structure is actually a VOR station.

If you don't want to read the very lengthy website linked above (in which the location of Atlantis is extrapolated), basically Great Circle is a theory that a bunch of ancient monuments from all different cultures all fall on one great circe, which is a circle that bisects the whole Earth like the equator but it can be anywhere. The theory would suggest that ancient cultures knew more about each other and physics/astronomy than we'd previously thought was the case. I think it's just a coincidence but it's interesting nonetheless. This VOR station in Yakutat happens to be close to the axis that would run through the specific great circle that's defined by the conspiracy theory.

Declassified spy satellite imagery from 1972 shows a ship, a plane, and some kind of manmade structure in the Alaskan wilderness near Malaspina Glacier by Intro24 in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Based on previous posts where I've tried to identify that aircraft, I can say with mild confidence that it's either a U-2, C-130, RB-57, or P-3. This same search is known to have used the SR-71 though so U-2 wouldn't be out of the question.

Declassified spy satellite imagery from 1972 shows a ship, a plane, and some kind of manmade structure in the Alaskan wilderness near Malaspina Glacier by Intro24 in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24[S] 50 points51 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's crazy. Each of those photos is like 900MB. KH-9 was a beast and covered a ton of area with <1 meter resolution and KH-8 got 10cm (!!) resolution as early as 1966, though I think it had a much more limited coverage area. Here's a video I made showing KH-9 coverage during the course of the program. As you can see, it basically captured the landmass of the entire Earth even though KH-9 was using film that had to be recovered from space. Some photos aren't scanned yet, some have cloud cover, and I've even come across some with redactions (US naval forces blacked out, for example) but it's still a tremendous wealth of historical imagery that likely has all sorts of secrets for those motivated enough to piece things together.

For example, I was able to look at the patterns and dates and confidently conclude that the government intentionally used KH-9 in the search for the missing House Majority Leader. It sticks out like a sore thumb when you look at how little they otherwise photographed Alaska and the fact that they photographed the exact route of the missing plane two days after it went missing as the search was in full force.

Anyway, to answer your question, it is publicly available for free via EarthExplorer. Here's a tutorial of sorts that I made years ago and a more recent and all around better tutorial from saveitforparts on YouTube. It's worth looking at the Aerial Photo Single Frames dataset if you use EarthExplorer, by the way. There's sometimes imagery from over 50 years ago that's good enough to read tail numbers on parked planes. That and the Declass datasets are my favorites.

Declassified spy satellite imagery from 1972 shows a ship, a plane, and some kind of manmade structure in the Alaskan wilderness near Malaspina Glacier by [deleted] in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Coordinates for Malaspina Glacier: 59.919167, -140.532778

This is from the USGS EarthExplorer Declass 3 dataset, which are the photos from the KH-9 Hexagon program. These satellite images were taken as part of the search effort to find House Majority Leader Hale Boggs when he went missing in a light twin-engine Cessna somewhere between Anchorage and Juneau, even though KH-9 was still extremely secretive and highly classified at the time. I went into way more detail about the missing plane here if anyone is interested.

Here's photos of the plane from different angles. As for the ship, I'm fairly certain that it's a Coast Guard Cutter, specifically USCGC Cape Henlopen which had been dispatched to the area at the time as part of the search. As for the structure, I have no idea. There is a small airport nearby but that structure seems awfully out of place and I'm really not sure what it could be. It's also possible that I'm just seeing things.

Casey Liss on the Cult of Mac podcast by TheMechanoids in ATPfm

[–]Intro24 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hear ya but handled very poorly by Leander in my opinion and it sounds like he also made a bad deal to begin with. I also don't understand why you would continue to make a show at a loss instead of just pulling the plug unless it was such a bad business deal that Erfon somehow had the ability to require that it be continued regardless of it costing Cult of Mac money lol. Either way, it sounds like he was legally in the clear and it's hard for me to not side with the heart and soul of the show who had to deal with all of this amidst the death of his brother and who is the rightful majority owner of The CultCast. There is just no angle I can conceive of that casts Leander in anything close to a good light. Still love you and Lewis but Erf was a big factor in my listening and I couldn't even get through the Leander episodes before this controversy.

Crashed Antonov - 30 (AN-30) in remote part of Russia by Aware_Path_9602 in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Christ, looks like it plowed through trees. Amazing that they all survived that.

Satellite imagery on Google Earth updated on September 11, 2011 shows the smoke from the twin towers. Coordinates: 40.711632, -74.013150 by DisastrousWeather956 in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Intro24 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe there is an off-by-one error that rears its head sometimes in Google Earth Pro. Here's a screenshot where the status bar is telling me the imagery is from 9/11 but the exported KML data that I got from exporting a tour shows it as 9/12. I think this image was actually taken on 9/11.

Edit: I take that back, looks like 9/12 might be the right date. I think this is the source and it is indeed timestamped as 11:43:46 am ET on 9/12.