google earth - wrong coordinates

tulipz

Dear all,

Its rather strange !

I can see from my window - sun is to the left (diagonally). So my house is facing south east. However on google earth, it says my house faces south west!

Thoughts anyone?

-Tulipz

chris_m

If the sun is to your left at almost 1pm when you are looking out of the front of your house, both you and your house are facing south-west.

agrinnall

If the sun is to the left when you look out at at noon or shortly after then your house does indeed face South West as Google Earth says. If you look out at 3 p.m, then the sun should be more or less straight ahead, having moved from left to right during that intervening time.

Doozergirl

Right now, it's afternoon so the sun is slightlyfurther towards west than east.

My house faces West, confirmed by where the sun goes down and google earth. The sun is digonally left of my house right now, but much nearer to the side of my house (south) than the front.

It sounds to me like your house does face South West. Google earth is unlikely to be wrong.

tulipz

Doozergirl wrote: »

Right now, it's afternoon so the sun is slightlyfurther towards west than east.

My house faces West, confirmed by where the sun goes down and google earth. The sun is digonally left of my house right now, but much nearer to the side of my house (south) than the front.

It sounds to me like your house does face South West. Google earth is unlikely to be wrong.

I went to see a property this morning. Again sun diagonally to the left....it was at 1030am....google earth shows it as SW!

tulipz

chris_m wrote: »

If the sun is to your left at almost 1pm when you are looking out of the front of your house, both you and your house are facing south-west.

Think again, if the sun is to the west, and it's on my left, my house is NW facing....not SW!

Doozergirl

tulipz wrote: »

Think again, if the sun is to the west, and it's on my left, my house is NW facing....not SW!

At 1pm, the sun is not in the West! It will be at about SSW. Much, much more South than West.

The sun takes the whole day to move from East to West, on a Southerly bend.

Doozergirl

tulipz wrote: »

I went to see a property this morning. Again sun diagonally to the left....it was at 1030am....google earth shows it as SW!

Are you feeling okay? At 10.30am the sun would have been at about SSE. If you were at a 45 degree angle to the right (with the sun on your left) , you'd be facing SSW! Even with the sun at a 90 degree angle to the left, you'd be facing SWW.

On a winter's day, the sun doesn't even properly reach true West by sunset.

googler

tulipz wrote: »

Dear all,

Its rather strange !

I can see from my window - sun is to the left (diagonally). So my house is facing south east. However on google earth, it says my house faces south west!

Thoughts anyone?

Buy/borrow/steal a compass.

Place it on any flat surface in your house. Look at it.

You have your answer.

chris_m

tulipz wrote: »

Think again, if the sun is to the west, and it's on my left, my house is NW facing....not SW!

Think again again - at 1pm, the sun is only slightly west of south, nowhere near being west.
In fact, at this time of year you won't ever see the sun in the west as it will have dropped below the horizon.

Actually, seeing as how you didn't tell us which window you were looking through (I interpreted your term "faces" as meaning the front) your house could actually be pointing in any direction ;-)

googler

However, I'm baffled by the statement "Google Earth SAYS...."

Google Earth, Google Maps, etc all show images.

What does the OP mean by this?