This is pretty neat... From Nasa I think! a zoomable globe that actually does get you down fairly close... in color yet. it does a lot more than that.Retrieves current data and all that.

This is a Major Download A friend with Hi speed retrieved it for me.
Also it seems you want a fairly recent computer.
you will need directX9c I think it is .. when installing Worldwind you will be presented links to DirectX and another networking program if needed.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4499.html

Here is a link to their help site to get a better idea.

http://ified.ca/IntroToWW/IntroToWW.html

Or go to one of these:

www.columbiagazetteer.org to search for a town and get demographic information as well

www.terraserver.com for aerial or setellite photos throughout the world

www.terraserver-usa.com for US locations, you can even put in a street address and zoom in. I was home the day the photo was taken in 2002!

I use all three of these sites for genealogy research to locate an immigrant's birthplace or to locate an address from a 1920 or 1930 census.

I've used terra server, and it's nice. The B&W terraserver photos are a little sharper even. This is something a bit different.

The color is nice but this is a lot more than hi res.photos...
this is not for all as it takes more effort than a casual view is worth.
But for those who'd enjoy spining the globe any direction, then Quickly zooming in with the mouse wheel to a level where roads are visible this will do that while allowing you to control what info is shown, Lat/long grid, controlable city names.. borders etc.
I haven't checked it out yet but there is a Forum as well as a Chat.
All fairly new I think.

I don't think I'll try the World Wind download just yet. I'm still running 98SE and thinking about upgrading to XP in the near future. I don't want to clutter my current system anymore than it already is.

I know I'm a dinosaur for still having 98 but I haven't had the need for a newer operating system until recently, such as wanting Elements 3 and not being able to install it. :bawling:

I will pass along the information to some of my computer geek friends however. I am sure they will enjoy it as much as they do terraserver. Thanks for the link.

The size of the download was 170mb. another 20mb or less for the other downloads.

installed it is now 850mb. I didn't Check the file size right after installation so I don't know how much of this is from the installation after decompressing or from Data I downloaded as I surfed around the planet.

seems the way it works is I am able to zoom in close enough to see the mountains and rivers before it becomes blurred then if I wait the computer downloads and inserts the higher resolution that corresponds so I can keep zooming in.
I'm sure with high spreed this happens quickly. as it is I think it's about a minute wait on a phone line.
So then it caches this data like a cookie so that the next visit to that location happens smoothly.
it's 3D and you can feel this effect if you are in a valley and move over a mountain. the mountain seems taller for sure.
it has a built in screenshot saver, I had to compress this to 37% to post it here but it might give someone an idea. This was taken SSW of Pueblo NM, USA

After the last post I found out about panning the camera... you can get down in the valley and look up a the mountains fairly clearly... as well as move and rotate. So say like CJ's Mt St Helens... you can zoom in and move around it. seeing it from all angles.

But instead of posting another screenshot I thought a link to the actual NASA worldwind site would do better.

http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

from the site:
World Wind was designed to run on recent PC hardware with 3D acceleration.

system Requirements

* Windows 2000, XP Home, or XP Professional
* Intel Pentium 3, 1 GHz, or AMD Athlon or higher
* 256 MB of RAM
* 3D Graphics Card
o nVidia GeForce 2 Ultra
o ATI Radeon 7500
o Intel Extreme Graphics 2
* DSL / Cable connection or faster(i'm on a phoneline)
* 2 GB of disk space

here is a screen shot from the website... I haven't been to Mt. St. Helens yet, I'm still trying to get over Doner Pass :)