How to Obtain the Latitude and Longitude of a Marker

Each marker's Latitude and Longitude coordinates are used to plot its location on a map. Latitude is the number of degrees north or south of the equator. Longitude is the number of degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian. The Prime Meridian is an arbitrary line drawn from the North Pole to the South Pole running through the Royal Greenwich Observatory in Greenwich, England.
 
This database stores latitude and longitude as two decimal numbers. The whole number portion is the degrees and the fractional portion of the number is the fraction of degrees. For example, 38.795570N, 77.269070W. However, you can enter it in any notation, such as N 38° 47' 44.0519", W 77° 15' 8.6519" or 38:47:44, -77:15:08 and the system will convert it. (Oh, and you can omit the ° symbol; you won't find it on your keyboard!)
 
There are many ways to for you to obtain Latitude and Longitude coordinates for a marker you are adding to the database. Here are two popular methods:
 
A. Let you camera do it for you. Today virtually all cell phone cameras and many dedicated cameras can be set to embed location information in each photograph. You can't see it on the image but it is in there. If your photos have location information in them, things got real easy for you. Simply leave the latitude and longitude fields blank on the Add-A-Marker form and then when you upload the first photograph, the system will automatically fill the latitude and longitude fields for you. No muss, no fuss.
 
When you use your photo’s embedded information you should check the map this website creates. Sometimes the camera has not yet figured out where you are when you click the shutter and it will embed the location of where you used to be. Or if you are taking the photo from across the road with your telephoto lens, the maker will be mapped on the wrong side of the road if you don’t intervene. If the location is wrong, you'll have to use method B below to correct the numbers.
 
B. Use the browser-based desktop version of Google Maps. Google recently made this real simple. (1) Find the marker's location on the map, (2) zoom in as far as you can, and (3) click once on the spot where the marker is located. A little window will open at the bottom of the map showing you the latitude and longitude.
 
You can copy and paste these numbers into the database like this: Click once on the numbers in the little window. This will transfer them to the search box on the upper left where you can then highlight and copy them. Paste them into the proper fields on the Add-A-Marker or Correct-This-Page form and you're done!
 
By the way, the minus sign, when present, is very important on a map coordinate number. Don't forget to copy it.
 
 
There are many other ways of obtaining the Latitude and Longitude coordinates of a marker. Share the method you use in the Forum.