Geolocation Exercises

1760459084387.png



Just guessing here, but are those office/residential buildings under construction in the center or ag buildings? They remind me a bit of grain towers around here, but square. If office/res buildings, it would seem to indicate an up and coming area close to a major city, but not in it, as these are clearly the tallest buildings in the area.

If some sort of agriculture or industrial buildings, it may be a bit more rural.
 
i think we need a clue @Giddierone
Okay so the white dot is difficult, so happy to roll over on that one. But, I thought the location would be easy given the unusual looking buildings.Yes, it's looking West. Here's a clue.

untitled.png

This reminded me of Canary Wharf
EDIT: I see what you mean, but that's just a branch in for foreground making that shape. :)
1760475845089.png
Screenshot 2025-10-14 at 22.02.37.png
 
Last edited:
But, I thought the location would be easy given the unusual looking buildings.
the white castle [a hamburger chain in america] looking building with the bird house on top, next to the steeple is maybe unusual but your pic isnt high def enough for me.

but didnt you say we cant see it in google street view? so whats the point of looking :)
 
Okay so the white dot is difficult, so happy to roll over on that one. But, I thought the location would be easy given the unusual looking buildings.Yes, it's looking West. Here's a clue.

View attachment 85019
OK that's enough to find the location.

Reverse image search identifies that building as Arc in Wembley.
1760517856225.png


Although that seems to be a red herring, as it's actually the Ark Soane project in Acton, which isn't yet on Google Earth but is in Street View.

We're looking from the northeast...

1760518662944.png


So the church tower is St Dunstan's, I think.

And looking on Google Earth puts the location in Wormwood Scrubs, around here.

1760519177565.png


51.522N, 0.241W.

In fact maybe slightly to the left as that white blob in the hedge might be the sign!

1760520036353.png

Working on the final part... but I have work to do!
 
Last edited:
OK that's enough to find the location.

Reverse image search identifies that building as Arc in Wembley.
View attachment 85024

Although that seems to be a red herring, as it's actually the Ark Soane project in Acton, which isn't yet on Google Earth but is in Street View.

We're looking from the northeast...

View attachment 85025

So the church tower is St Dunstan's, I think.

And looking on Google Earth puts the location in Wormwood Scrubs, around here.

View attachment 85026

51.522N, 0.241W.

Working on the final part... but I have work to do!

Ah.... I have been rummaging around Wormwood Scrubs on google earth
 
In fact based on the sun angle I wonder if the white object might be
the moon?
However I can't find a day that it would work... shadows show it was soon after sunrise, but if it is the moon the it is just about to set. The timings don't work for the week it was posted, at least.

Also it doesn't look full moon shaped, but that could be distortion on the photo.
 
Last edited:
I think my 'Canary Wharf' is that building, so it cant be the white object


So what I think the white dot was is something reflective at the top of a blue crane about the distance of the building in my hint above. The blue arm of the crane I could see with my eyes but my phone (iPhone SE 2) couldn't distinguish it from the sky. It was glinting very noticeably.

1760525973738.png

Also, the moon was very visible and was large and low, but was much further to the right of the frame. Something like this:
Stellarium Moon.png
 
Last edited:
I think my 'Canary Wharf' is that building, so it cant be the white object

Yes I came to the same conclusion in post 417. I can't see a building that would match the white object, not at that height. Unless there is a crane there maybe?

Edit... and I see I had missed @Giddierone's spoiler saying it was!


1760529834070.png


That is 51.5224N, 0.24041W. I had 51.522N, 0.241W. Fairly happy with that!
 
Given the exact location...

1760530180549.png


"flying" in that direction in Google Earth I think it is somewhere around here:

1760530272742.png



June 2025 Street View has construction hoardings here... looks like it is the redevelopment of the Brentside Glaxo site. But from what I can see that hasn't started yet.

1760530459295.png



In fact I think more likely this...

POD Brentford

1760530784883.png
 
Last edited:
Here's a challenge, which I don't actually know the answer to. It might be quite straightforward or it might not!

Can we identify this aircraft?

I spotted it on Google Maps as I was arriving at a local beauty spot at the weekend (car park pictured on the right).

1760532691506.png
 
Just one more thing...
So, here's an overlay with a photo taken the next day from a similar spot. You can see the "blue" crane turned the other way.
IMG_8648 copy.gif
 
I spotted it on Google Maps as I was arriving at a local beauty spot at the weekend (car park pictured on the right).
google earth says imagery 6/13/25 im not watching flights all day though :) so youre on your own

edit
(actually flightradar24 is only giving me 7 days playback now :( ) and fyi "beauty spot" made me think a hairdresser.. so that a bad clue lol!)
 
Last edited:
google earth says imagery 6/13/25 im not watching flights all day though :) so youre on your own

edit
(actually flightradar24 is only giving me 7 days playback now :( ) and fyi "beauty spot" made me think a hairdresser.. so that a bad clue lol!)
You wouldn't have to search all day. If we assume that the top is North then, based on shadows we are looking at the AM time frame. Start initial search around 9:00 am. Cross reference with https://worldairlinenews.com/airline-tails/. I'm new to all of this so I'm guessing as to an approach.
 
pick the time that you want to start looking for the plane.
i picked 9am. i got swr421 8:05z going right over the place. do you think the satellite is pretty much directly overhead? meaning the plane doesnt look sideways right?

is there a way to search what time(s) the google earth satellite was overhead that day? add: assuming the google earth date is correct.
 
Last edited:
Do we have the correct date? When I looked at Google Earth (which had the same picture) it said June 14, 2025.
1760552095958.png
 
We did something similar when that satellite showed up in Google Earth imagery a few months back.

https://www.metabunk.org/threads/mystery-satellite-in-google-imagery.14149/

Not too difficult when you know where to look, take the day from Google Earth, take the time from the shadows on suncalc.org, correlate with ADS-B Exchange, get the sat from in-the-sky,org. Got no time to take screenshots but it's probably around 1104 UTC, the plane is G-EZGN (EasyJet A319 from Edinburgh to Gatwick), the sat that took the picture is Pleiades Neo 4.
 
We did something similar when that satellite showed up in Google Earth imagery a few months back.

https://www.metabunk.org/threads/mystery-satellite-in-google-imagery.14149/

Not too difficult when you know where to look, take the day from Google Earth, take the time from the shadows on suncalc.org, correlate with ADS-B Exchange, get the sat from in-the-sky,org. Got no time to take screenshots but it's probably around 1104 UTC, the plane is G-EZGN (EasyJet A319 from Edinburgh to Gatwick), the sat that took the picture is Pleiades Neo 4.
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?ica...80&zoom=12.4&showTrace=2025-06-14&trackLabels

1760555328999.png
 
Back
Top