| County Highpoint Map and Image Hyperlink Descriptions |
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Links are provided to both topographic charts and road maps at acme.com; and to aerial / satellite images at flashearth.com.
At both websites zooming and panning the original view is easily achieved. Changing scale and moving from the original coordinates is essential to get the "complete picture" of a highpoint's relationship to both the road grid and topographic features.
Topographic charts are USGS 24,000:1 series 7.5 minute quadrangles, with the exception of Alaska at a 63,000:1 scale. For the forty-eight contiguous states the radio button labeled "normal" provides a 24,000:1 series chart; while the radio button labeled "regional overview" provides a 100,000:1 series chart.
Road maps are presented on a smaller scale as in general the driving approach occurs over a much larger distance than the hike or climb itself. The radio button labeled "normal" provides a view ("z=10") that is roughly 60 miles in east-west extent, and 40 miles north-south. Your values depend on screen resolution and browser window size. The radio button labeled "regional overview" ("z=7") portrays the main roads over hundreds of miles - often including entire states.
Aerial / satellite images at flashearth are available from several datasets, including Microsoft Virtual Earth ("VE") aerial images, Google images, Terraserver (updated daily), etc.... When linking to flashearth the radio button labeled "normal" defaults to Microsoft VE aerial images at a magnification providing a view roughly 2-3 miles in east-west and 1-2 miles north-south extent. This zoom-level is denoted "z=15" at flashearth. The radio button labeled "regional overview" provides a view roughly eight to nine times broader in each dimension ("z=12").
As noted, at flashearth one may zoom-in and pan-out to a considerable extent from these default magnifications. Sometimes the Google images are full-color when the Microsoft VE aerial images are black and white. However Google images are often unavailable over the range of magnification provided by the Microsoft VE aerial images - hence the latter was selected as the dataset retrieved upon initial linking to flashearth.
With flashearth the image center is slighly off-target from the highpoint, having used the (true) highpoint coordinates. However in all cases tested, "normal" magnification will contain the highpoint in the resulting view. This image centering problem renders it inadvisable to have emplaced a third, "high magnification" radio button: the highpoint would commonly be off-map and hence unavailable for inspection.
Alaska images are generally unavailable at flashearth and acme.com with the "normal" magnification ("z=15"). A separate hyperlink is provided for each borough highpoint, which upon mouse-clicking yields the "regional overview" magnification ("z=12"). For a broader view still one may then pan-out to "z=10" while at either website.