Passenger Pigeon is a project/concept for collecting aerial imagery from passenger plane windows with handheld digital cameras. To make a map, just take photos out the window of your commercial flight. Then use the free and open source [MapKnitter.org](https://mapknitter.org) to align the images with a map as soon as you land. ### Examples (click links for TMS/Geotiff downloads) * Utah (shown below): http://publiclab.org/notes/eustatic/5-10-2012/hills-have-acne-passenger-pigeon-photos-drill-sites-out-west * Manhattan/Brooklyn: https://mapknitter.org/map/view/newtown-creek-docsearls ### Tips for photographers * point the camera as straight downwards as possible * hold the camera as stably as you can - brace it against the window * try not to sit behind the wing, where the engine exhaust blurs the air * take note of where the photos are, if you anticipate difficulty in placing them on a map later * check flight-tracking websites ahead of time to plan when you'll be able to take good photos (possibly during landing or takeoff, if you're allowed to use your camera) ## Questions [questions:passenger-pigeon] ## Activities [activities:passenger-pigeon] ### Maps ### Advanced Some Public Lab folks have done multispectral imaging from a plane window -- see the [near-infrared camera page](/tool/near-infrared-camera) for details on how to collect/produce infrared imagery with less than $150 of equipment. NRG composite from out the window of airplane over Amsterdam Infrared vegetation analysis from a plane