upvote
For a 3D rendering of the longest sightline, see this direct panorama rendering: https://www.udeuschle.de/panoramas/panqueryfull.aspx?mode=ne...

Note that technically my link is a slightly longer sightline (longer by 7 km).

reply
Google Earth shows what it looks like from above. That can be very different from what it looks like from a side view. I've hiked to many spots I saw from above with Google Earth--it can be hard matching up what I see on the ground with what it saw from the sky. It never looks remotely the same.

Also, there is a local sky island completely nontechnical wanna-be 12. Sight lines from up there are huge--except the two times I've been up there I couldn't see anywhere near as far as the supposed sight lines. Roughly 100 miles before all I saw was a haze. (And in a related thread some time ago one of these sight line plotters was getting it seriously wrong. It failed to show areas I knew I could see, it showed areas I knew were blocked by mountains.)

reply
Google Earth can produce a side view just fine, it's just not designed for that so it can be tricky to get the position just right with the available controls.

And like I said, the reason I didn't do it here was because it hid the label on the horizon. But here it is:

https://earth.google.com/web/@36.43138439,78.74038717,4785.2...

But without the label you can't really tell what you're looking at. And the big problem is there's no "sideways" zoom like a telescope. Google Earth effectively treats zoom like altitude only.

In my experience while hiking tall things, the Google Earth view is accurate in terms of what you see, if you manage to get the viewpoint next to the ground like this. And you appreciate that the resolution is obviously limited.

reply
Do you think there's any way to automatically create these Google Earth links for each of the longest lines of sight on maps.alltheviews.world?
reply
Thanks!

That imgur link is great, I totally see what you mean. So surely there is a way to at least automate linking to these views? I don't know about embedding them cos Google will want money. We're very open to suggestions, and PRs of course! https://github.com/AllTheLines/viewview

reply
I had a slightly different question (that wasn't googleable), that you may be able to answer with the data you have.... What two points on earth are furthest from each other when taking into account the earth is an ellipsoid? I'm guessing Chimborazo and whatever is diametrically opposed to it, but is there anything else that's close?
reply
There aren't that many antipodes on land. It is mainly South America to Southeast and East Asia. With New Zealand to Spain.

Chimborazo's antipode is Sumatra. That may be the best, unless there is peak in Indonesia that lines up with Andes in Columbia.

reply
Do you mean like if you drew a line from the surface on one side of the planet, through the Earth's core, to the other side of the planet. What is the longest line that could do that?
reply
Yup... Figured it would be interesting if two people stood on opposite sides of the earth and could claim they were as far apart as possible, or if someone visited both "antipoles" and stood at the locations that were furthest apart.
reply
Wooah, both "antipoles", I've never thought of that. What a great idea. In theory yes, we have the data, but I haven't begun to consider the maths to figure that out.
reply
Also spell out what "line of sight" means in this context.
reply
It means a straight line that you can see to the other end while still being on the ground.

Long lines of sight are between stuff at high altitudes because at near sea level the horizon becomes a problem after only a few miles/kilometres.

reply
Yes, I worked it out - just a suggestion for making the article better.
reply