Space. The last frontier. However, this is precisely the starting point when you open Google Earth, a medium that allows you to see the whole world as it shines in the night sky as well as the topography of the continents and oceans and a small hint of geopolitical borders.
Either way, this doesn't matter to us now! What really interests us is to browse here and there and find our home! How to get there? Climb aboard the WikiHow sightseeing bus and you'll be shown what the birds see!
Steps
Method 1 of 4: Download Google Earth
Step 1. First thing to do:
download and install Google Earth. You can find it among the Google Products, under the "Geo" section.
Follow the installation instructions and, at the end, open it
Step 2. Search for your home
Method 2 of 4: The easy way
Step 1. Enter your address
In the upper left corner, open "Search", in case it is not already open. Afterwards, you will see these three buttons: "Fly to", "Find the company" and "Directions". Click on "Fly to".
Enter your address and click on the magnifying glass. Google Earth will rotate and zoom in on your neighborhood, as if you were looking at it from a few thousand meters high. A gray text with your address will appear
Step 2. Use the zoom to get closer
Double click on the gray writing to get closer.
- Each double click will bring you closer to the ground.
- Keep clicking until you get close. Typically, it takes about three double clicks.
- As you can see, the image is a bit blurry because the cameras that take pictures of houses are very far away. Despite this, they do a good job, even if you probably expected something more.
Step 3. Move the cursor to the right side of the page, where you will see several tools:
two virtual joysticks, one with a hand symbol and another with an eye symbol and, if Google has your neighborhood among its maps, an orange human icon. Drag the figure to your home and drop it - you will find yourself directly in your street!
Step 4. Look around, visit your neighborhood; you can also click on the street, “walk” on it and go to all the places that Google has mapped
Method 3 of 4: Discover the world with one click
Step 1. Take a look at the tools located on the right side of the page, that is, the two joysticks mentioned above and the zoom
Step 2. Find your country using the joystick with the hand symbol
- Click on the right arrow to rotate in the direction of Asia and the left arrow to rotate in the direction of America; the arrow that goes upwards moves towards the North Pole, while the one that goes downwards in Antarctica.
- As an alternative, you can simply click and drag the earth in the direction you wish to go.
Step 3. For a test, go to Paris using the darts
Use the joystick darts with the eye symbol to rotate France to the correct position.
- When it is centered on your screen, double-click on it.
- With the first double click, France will be in the center of your screen and you will see the other European capitals. In the north of France, you will see Paris. Double-click on the city to see it from above.
- Use the zoom on the right (under the two joysticks) and, in front of you, the French landscapes will open. While you are on earth, and you are no longer looking from above, use the outer ring of the joystick by moving the N symbol to the south. Now, you will be looking at the city.
- Zoom in. When you find a neighborhood that can be explored, click on the person's orange icon and use the Street View function.
Step 4. Take a spin by moving with the arrows on the keyboard
Method 4 of 4: Extra fun
Step 1. Look at the sun
From the “View” menu, select “Sun”.
If it is night in the place you have reached, you will not see much. Rotate the earth towards the sunlit places and you will see the point where day meets night. The beauty is that you can watch the process in real time
Step 2. Look at the moon
From the “See / Explore” menu, select “Moon”.
Visit the sites of the Apollo missions and much more. And yes, in case you were wondering, the Street View feature exists here too
Step 3. Don't limit yourself
Explore the craters of Mars or Messier objects. However, don't expect Street View on the NGC5458: even Google has its limits; on the other hand, it is still a question of space, the last frontier.
Advice
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You can use the arrows on your keyboard to navigate:
- The direction arrows, by themselves, go down, up, left and right.
- With the Command Key (Mac) or the Control Key (Windows), the left arrow rotates clockwise, the right arrow rotates counterclockwise and those that go up and down are used to look up and down.
- On Street View, up and down arrows make you go back and forth. The left arrow moves you to the left and the right arrow to the right.
- Adding alt="Image" Key to the methods explained so far will slow down the movement in order to adjust your location or actions.
- Explore starting from your door; visit the neighborhood, the places where you lived and the whole world without leaving home!
- Take a look at the Antarctic. Google Earth will allow you to visit historic houses, bases and penguin colonies right from your comfortable sofa, without freezing!
