BREAKING NEWS: NORWAY WAS PLATINUM
I can't believe it's taken me this long to figure this out, and I won't go into the ins and outs of why, but basically the line that you saw on Garmin BaseCamp (the straight yellow line that was 10 metres south of the "walked" line) IS NOT a straight line around the surface of the Earth. I kind of knew this already having read all the emails that people sent in, but upon learning yesterday that straight lines drawn on Google Earth ARE in fact completely accurate (I was under a different impression) I decided to export my "walked" line from Garmin BaseCamp and import it into Google Earth. That's when something beautiful graced my eyes. The blue walked line, perfectly hugged the red straight line, so much so that I immediately began to measure the biggest deviations to see if they were over 25m. To my delight, not one of them were. It all makes sense now. I DID do a platinum run and I'm absolutely over the moon, partly because I've done a platinum run in Norway, but also because I've figured out what the problem was. A straight line drawn in the 2D Mercator map projection in Garmin Basecamp is not a straight line on the earth's surface, but when uploaded to the Garmin GPS System, it is. The reason I didn't identify this is because the imagery on Garmin Basecamp is that shit that you can't make anything out. Now that I know this however, I need not worry about this ever happening again. I do however plan on upgrading my GPS system for more accuracy.
YouTube video incoming this weekend. Just thought I'd share it with you guys first.
P.S. Childhood Mission with Greg (recreation) Part 1 will be available on Sunday on the $4 tier. Yes that's right, it's going from $6 to $4, so hang fire until Sunday if you were going to make the leap and don't want to pay $6.
Comments (52)
Geowizard, I see you might have doubt in your assessment due to the line showing you went through houses and the like. But there's a simple explanation. The satellite imagery are 2D images and it themselves are being projected on the (very accurate) Google Earth. Due to the nature of stitching these images together, and minute details in the rotation/skew etc. it may not be 100% accurate. I do believe your run IS platinum and the imagery is more in the wrong.
ledge
Fantastic news Tom!
I'm glad for you, but it's also somewhat bittersweet, because it means that there's no longer a Mission Across Norway 2 to look forward to.
I'd still be interested why it deviated by a lot after powering the unit off and on again. I sent you an email regarding that a few weeks back. If you're willing to share the GPX tracks with me, I'd really like to analyze them.
CONGRATULATIONS!
This is great news, Tom! It was so hard to watch you going over all of this before as you were so clearly disappointed. As a software engineer who has worked on products that use maps extensively and have lots of geospatial features, I can confirm that all of this is a mess sometimes, even before you get into projections and coordinate systems. Looking forward to seeing what sorts of cool new software and hardware you get for future adventures!
HELL YEAH! The dawn of a new era.
Woohoo! Congrats Tom!
I just signed up to Patrean so I can support Tom and I just have and this is the first post I see. Great news, indeed! Also bodes well for the future endeavours!
same thing happened to me today
I literally subscribed this moment to find out this exact thing. Science, who knew!
Tom this is GREAT news, it means you DID make the goal at the end of the line despite what the video shows!
Excellent! $6 stays, a pint on me :) (or 4 pints in SVK)
Woohooo! Congrats Tom!
Nice. Just as expected from a former navy seal.
Now this is real news
wooo congrats Tom!!
Hell yeah! This actually made my day better!
“I...I’ve won! How have I won?” Bc Mercator, mate! Get in!!
Get in! But can you repeat that without zooming or moving?
That´s awesome mate! Happy for u :)
Congratulations Tom! Thanks for taking us along for the ride!
Is right Tom lad!
Ayyyy
Get in!
S C I E N C E 🎉
Yeeees, congrats
Congratulations, Tom!
Congrats I'm very happy for you! And how community-minded of you to make the top tier more accessibel!
Well now this is a pleasant surprise. 😅 Congrats!!
Congrats. New catagory DIAMOND PLATINUM <15m deviation.
Awesome!
Perhaps if you'd upgrade your 'global positioning system system' to just a 'global positioning system' that would make a difference 😉
Yes! Congrats bro
Fuck yeah!!
Congrats on the Norway platinum, amazing!! Also I don't know where else to put this but I'm from Luxembourg, if you still plan on doing a straight line mission here, I would definitely be able to help you out if needed (scouting, support, line check, ..) Hit me up if you're interested ✌
Pretty sure that Luxembourg is going to be impossible with Covid, or at least very frowned upon. I do believe that Scotland will more than make up for it though. I'm going to do a big post on the YouTube community this weekend explaining it publicly.
Amazing! Major congrats!
Get in! Smashed it
I guess being so far north, Marcator had a bigger effect. any difference for MAW\MAW2 ?
Absolutely - see my above reply to Mark
GET IN
Get in mate!
Oh ya beauty
Amazing news, congrats Tom!
Great news! Can you go back to the Wales lines and see if it changes that ?
It doesn't have quite as much of an impact on the first Wales line because the deviations were so big, but what it does mean for the second Wales trip is that the big deviation at the house with the man and woman was 57m, meaning the trip would have been a silver run (if we're still using those parameters) Interestingly the widest gap on that trip between the two lines is less than that of the Norway one (about 10m) despite it being over twice as long. This is because it is so much further from the north pole.
I knew it! Congratulations!
CONGRATS!!! Amazing achievement! 😍
“Sick mate!” “Get in!”
HUGE NEWS