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The Eyes in the Sky II project website has not been significantly updated since 2012. We are preserving the web pages here because they still contain useful and ideas and content. But be aware that the site may have out of date information. For more recent information you may want to explore the GIS/Remote Sensing area of the Teach the Earth portal.
Initial Publication Date: April 16, 2010

Week 9: Googling Around

Using Google Earth

Coming Soon.....!!!

  • Goal: Learn how to connect a series of locations in a Google Earth tour to tell a cohesive story.
  • Task: View and create Google Earth tours.

Create your own tour - two methods Using Tours Note: This updated touring feature is available only in Google Earth 5 and later You can create and play tours of places and content. Tours are a guided experience where you fly from one location to another, view terrain and content and look around as you wish. You can create tours that record your exact navigation in the 3D window and even add audio. You can then share these tours with other Google Earth users. Playing Tours Create a folder in Places Panel Add > Folder Create places Drag places to folder Select folder, click Play Tour button Method 2 Using line tool, create a line (path) - it is saved to Places Pane Line tool - drag freehand or click vertices. set parameters select path in Places panel click Play Tour button. If you have time... Create your own tour - it can be as short or as long as you have time for. If you don't have time to create your own tour, click Add Content button and browse for a pre-built tour to explore - Castles and Palaces, MLB stadiums, etc. [note from LK - this doesn't seem to be working in Mac version.] What kinds of tours could you make for your students? What kinds of tours could your students make? Text from GE Help Tutorial To play a tour, double click the tour in the Places panel. To create and play a new tour of items in My Places, select the appropriate folder in the Places panel and click the Play Tour button . To create and play a new tour of a line (path), select the appropriate line in the Places panel and click the Play Tour button . The tour begins playing in the 3D viewer and the tour controls appear in the bottom left corner of the 3D viewer. To pause or resume the tour, click the Pause/Play button. To fast forward or go back on the tour, click the arrow buttons (press these repeatedly to accelerate back or forward). To replay the again and again tour, click the Repeat button. Use the tour slider to move to any part of the tour. These controls disappear if the tour is inactive for a period of time, but you can make them reappear by moving the cursor over the bottom left corner of the 3D window. Go back, play/pause and fast forward buttons Tour slider Current time in tour Repeat button Save tour button Close tour button As a tour plays, you can look around by dragging the view. Note that this is diferent than navigating, as you can only look around from the view points of the tour. When you pause a tour, you can navigate anywhere. When you click the play button again, the tour resumes where it left off. Once you create a new tour, be sure to click the Save tour button. Recording Tours To record a tour, click the Record a Tour button in the toolbar or click View > Tour. The record tour controls appear in the bottom left corner of the 3D window. To begin and end recording, click the Record/Stop button. To add audio to your tour, click the Audio button. When you are finished recording your tour, it appears in the Places panel. You can then play it or share it with others. Record/Stop button Audio button Current time in tour Cancel tour recording button When you finish recording, click the Record/Stop button. The tour then plays. To save the tour, click the Save button in the playback controls that re-appear. Your tour appears in the Places panel. Tours are KML-based. If you are familiar with KML, you can manually edit the code of your tour. Learn more about KML. Tip - You can record while another tour is playing to create a new tour. This allows you to create interesting perspectives and effects in the new tour, such as using the mouse to change the viewing angle. Setting Tour Options You can control touring behavior, as described below. To access these settings, click Tools > Options. (on the Mac, click Google Earth > Preferences). When you are creating a tour from a folder in the places panel, use these settings: Time between features - Use this setting to control how fast the viewer flies to each stop a the tour you create from a folder. Keep in mind that setting the tour to a high speed requires that your cache contain all imagery, or else the earth, road, and placemark imagery will not be streamed quickly enough to keep up with the tour. Wait at features - Use this to set the desired pause time for each stop in the tour. Fly along lines - Check this to make your tour follow a path (if available). Show balloons when waiting at features - Check this to display balloons at each placemark when the tour pauses. When you are creating a tour that follows a line (path), use these settings: Camera tilt angle - Use this to set the angle of the view displayed when following a line Camera range - Use this to determine how much of the earth (example 10,000 meters) is displayed in the tour Speed - Use this to set the speed of the tour When you are recording a tour, use the slider to choose a balance between the file size and the quality (fidelity) of your tour.