{"id":1781,"date":"2015-12-28T14:00:10","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T22:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/?p=1781"},"modified":"2015-12-28T13:56:36","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T21:56:36","slug":"name-that-peak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/featured\/name-that-peak\/","title":{"rendered":"Name That Peak!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Crater<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Crater<\/p>\n

When you are standing atop a mountain, \u00a0you probably know the name of the peak you are on, but what about all those other peaks around you? \u00a0Maps can come in handy here. \u00a0It’s just a matter of unfolding the map, \u00a0orienting it toward north, \u00a0finding your position on the map and noticing which peaks are in which direction from your position. \u00a0Well, unless your map is too small and the peaks aren’t on it or maybe you don’t know your exact position or maybe there is fog obscuring the ground and some of the peaks or maybe there are just so many peaks it would take too much time to locate them all – what then?<\/p>\n

In some places you’ll find roadside plaques that offer a panoramic view of the mountains with the peaks named, like on the graphic on top of this page. \u00a0Other places have a concrete platform with a center mark, where you stand, and named arrows point to each peak. \u00a0Unfortunately, in most places such aids don’t exist – what then?<\/p>\n

PeakFinder on the WWW<\/h1>\n

The featured video in our December 18 weekly newsletter<\/a>\u00a0showed scenes extracted from the newest Star Wars movie. \u00a0It seems that many of the backgrounds were filmed in the Lake District of England around Derwentwater and Thirlmere. \u00a0The video’s producers, Colin Bell and Chris Chapman, were able to identify the various peaks shown in the movie and prove it by dropping a horizon over the video showing how the peaks in the video matched the peaks around the Lake District.<\/p>\n

It was a neat trick using something called PeakFinder. \u00a0PeakFinder is an application that is free on your computer and can be found at\u00a0www.peakfinder.org<\/a>. \u00a0Go to the website and, if the application can determine where you are, it will display the named peaks all around you. \u00a0You can also choose a location to view in other ways from the dropdown menu at the top left of your monitor:<\/p>\n