"To himself a topographer" by Yuri Dzyuban, in the
online mag "Computerra"
19.06.2003

As many, probably, remember from a school geography class, the globe is
surrounded with imaginary lines which they refer to as parallels and
meridians. There are 180 parallels - the lines parallel to the equator; the
site of the certain point of a terrestrial surface on this or that parallel
they refer to as its latitude. The latitude can be northern or southern.
Meridians are imaginary lines which connect geographical poles of a planet.
There are only 360, and they define the longitude of an object. Coordinates
of a geographical point are defined in degrees and smaller units - minutes
and seconds (for example, 49 degrees 26 minutes 3 seconds of northern
latitude (49 ° 26 ' 03 " N) and 32 degrees 4 minutes zero seconds of east
longitude (32 ° 04 ' 00 " E), is my city).

Orientation in the system of coordinates formed by parallels and meridians,
is vital for navigation of air transport, shipping, satellite communication,
in military operations, etc. You also can establish more or less exact
latitude and longitude of your present site, having taken advantage of an
appropriate map or one from online directories.  Relatively recently
so-called GPS-navigators (GPS - from Global Positioning System, Global
system of navigation and definition of position) became available to general
consumers for less than 100 U.S. dollars. The latest are made already in a
broad enough assortment and might externally remind you of a mobile phone or
even a watch. In the long term they, probably, even will be implanted under
your skin. Catching signals from satellites, the GPS-navigator allows the
owner to establish the location to within a second.

This was a small introduction, but now to the point. Until recently the
network of parallels and meridians remained something rather imaginary and
abstract, though obviously it was possible to become familiar with it,
looking perhaps at a globe or a map. So was till the moment in 1996 when an
unusual idea popped into the head of 18-year-old Alex Jarrett from the state
of Massachusetts -- that in fact he lived several kilometers from a place of
crossing of the 43rd parallel of the northern hemisphere and the 72nd
meridian of western longitude. Jarrett decided that it would be rather
interesting to see what is at this significant place. And so, on February
20, 1996, having taken with himself several friends and a recently bought
GPS-navigator, he went to the hidden place of crossing.

What they discovered, it is possible to see in the photo. There it was,
strictly speaking a normal bog, except frozen. Jarrett made some pictures,
notes, and the friends returned home. Jarrett described the venture to
several relatives and friends. Among them were found some people to whom it
seemed rather interesting, and they also started to take hikes and trips to
find and record places of crossing of meridians and parallels.

In due course Jarrett had the idea of creating a web site -
www.confluence.org - on which any interested person, having registered, can
participate in the "mapping" of the planet. So appeared the Degree
Confluence Project.

Not all crossings of parallels and meridians on the planet (there are
64,442) need to be visited. From 47,650 which theoretically meet the
requirements of the project, only about 16,000 crossings which are either on
land, or on small distance from it have been selected. Points at open ocean
have been excluded (actually, I think, their pictures will not be very
different), also, many points above 49 degrees in latitude have been omitted
because of the "convergence" of the meridians -- separate crossings can be
within ten kilometers. At a latitude of 90 degrees there is only one point
for each of poles.

The rules of the project are rather simple - it is necessary to find a place
of crossing of a parallel and a meridian (preferably with accuracy of a
second) and to make some pictures of the area within a radius of up to 100
meters from the given point. It is possible to define a place of crossing
with the help of a GPS-navigator, or by having taken advantage of a detailed
map of the area. Except for a map or the navigator the usual camera or a
digital camera (with the resolution of at least 600x400x16) and a compass is
necessary. The rest - to taste...

While worldwide only about 14 % of points of crossings have been visited and
photographed, 13,585 remain. Some of the points are in private property,
whose owners are poorly sensitive to the great idea of mapping the planet.
There are also some where access is closed by authorities, for example, the
legendary Area 51 in the state of Nevada, USA on which is a military base
and which is made famous by stories about UFOs. The majority of the
described points are somewhere in the countryside, however there are also
some which appear in cities or even in industrial areas.

In case the required point is in someone's property, as it is written in the
instructions, it is desirable nevertheless to try to receive the permission
of the owners. For this purpose it is possible to take advantage of prepared
request-letters in seven languages, available on the site.

In the same place it is possible to find a brief educational program on
geography, detailed instruction on how to find a crossing, to register it
and to enter it into a database on the site, news of the project and other
necessary information. The list of all points on the countries is available
(from a special or the main page), it is possible to see a map of the
specific state and to learn, how many and which points are already
documented, and what else it is necessary to visit. The volume of the
database of the site has already passed 1 Gb, in it there are about 20,000
photos from more than 120 countries; the statistics of the project can be
seen here.

However, I believe that a concrete example will be much clearer and more
interesting. Therefore we find on the front page in the list of the
countries Russia, which we click.

We get to a page on which we see a map, statistics of the visited /
unvisited points and their quantity in areas. Having clicked on the map, we
open a more developed variant with marking and marked crossings, which
already are "mapped out" (see a fragment).

Symbols: squares - so-called primary crossings, triangles - secondary; a
gray square or a triangle - a point which has not been visited, a figure
with white center - a point, which because the visit was unsuccessful, is
limited only to an attempt, here also are surveys from the air; red
figures - the visited and recorded crossings. To be primary the crossings
must fulfill all conditions of the project, that is taking place on land or
water (ice) near the coast, excepting certain subpolar concerns; all other
points - secondary. Their visiting is not the direct purpose of the project,
however they also are welcomed.

However, we shall return to page of Russia. Statistics. Primary points:
visited - 16, attempts - 4, all - 1836; secondary: visited - 6, attempts-2,
all - 1356. So, a total of 22 crossings are already visited. While pointing
the cursor at the red marks it is possible to see their coordinates. We
choose a random point: 56° northern latitude, 38° east longitude. We click.

In the photo a forest, according to the description, it is 2.1 km east of a
certain Komyagino, in the Moscow area. The point has been visited on May, 7
(recently!) 2003 by Nikita and Julya Zholudev. It is possible to read their
brief impressions and, when desired, to look at the full-scale photos.

When you wish, it is possible to look at other visited crossings. On page of
a point 56° N 40° E there is a Russian version of the story of how the
"expedition" went.

For comparison, in the territory of Ukraine, out of 64 primary and 15
secondary points, only 3 primary points have been visited (here, for
example, one in Crimea).

In territory of my region - 2 points. None of them has been visited and
photographed yet. Who knows, possibly sometime when I acquire a
GPS-navigator, I shall decide to combine pleasant with useful and I shall
make an outing to nature, so as to visit there...