Satellite image of inauguration

This is a half-meter resolution image of the US Capitol and National Mall taken by the GeoEye-1 satellite this morning during President Obama's inauguration. That sure is a lot of people. 2009 Inaugural Celebration. Washington D.C. National Mall (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)

[#1 posted by drivers99 , January 20, 2009 3:28 PM]

That's a very tiny portion of the crowd. That's the seated area mostly the seated area. It doesn't show the mass of people on the mall back to the Washington monument and beyond.

Here's a map of the area for comparison.

[#2 posted by Larem , January 20, 2009 3:42 PM]

Anyone have a mirror for the high-res pic?

[#3 posted by Aloisius , January 20, 2009 3:53 PM]

@drivers99 - the high res version shows them all the way to the Washington monument. Unfortunately the image is rather low resolution so it really just looks like there are a bunch of mounds of dirt all over the place. :)

On a side note, I had no idea the roof of the capitol was blue.

[#4 posted by Dillenger69 , January 20, 2009 3:53 PM]

Is this the same place they held the "million" man march? I wonder how those photos would compare.

[#5 posted by adamnvillani , January 20, 2009 3:56 PM]

Whoa, the Capitol building looks like a complex of swimming pools at first glance.

[#6 posted by TheChickenAndTheRice , January 20, 2009 3:56 PM]

The humans congregate to hoist their new leader to power!

[#7 posted by Takuan , January 20, 2009 4:09 PM]

what did they do with all the sniper posts and other security positions,? they appear to be absent or different. Even the top secret burst transmitter antenna are missing.

[#8 posted by Anonymous , January 20, 2009 4:13 PM]

capitolium really looks alike the google earth [edited] version.

[#9 posted by workergnome , January 20, 2009 4:28 PM]

CNN interactive version

This version shows the entire mall area.

[#10 posted by Quiet Noises , January 20, 2009 4:34 PM]

Kind of neat that in the original image, just below the Washington Monument, another satellite is passing by. Cute.

[#11 posted by Takuan , January 20, 2009 4:50 PM]

or is it a dock?

[#12 posted by coaxial , January 20, 2009 5:01 PM]

Was anyone able to download the complete highres version from geoeye? Whenever I tried I just got a small part of the lower left of the main image.

[#13 posted by Anonymous , January 20, 2009 5:24 PM]

The roof of the Capitol was made out of copper, thus the color.

[#14 posted by Anonymous , January 20, 2009 5:28 PM]

The CNN image linked in #9 really makes me want a circle of numbers (1-12), each 50' tall, placed around the Washington Monument, on rooftops, the ground, wherever.

A sundial you read from space!

[#15 posted by bfarn , January 20, 2009 6:28 PM]

@13: Copper schmopper - My guess is that the white house hasn't been redecorated since the Truman administration.

[#16 posted by JoshuaTerrell , January 20, 2009 6:40 PM]

#15 It hasn't. But that's the Capitol building :P

First thing I said was: HEY the Capitol building is BLUE!

[#17 posted by Grisly , January 20, 2009 6:42 PM]

It looks like when you step on an ant hill.

[#18 posted by grimc , January 20, 2009 7:01 PM]

CNN kept going to this all day on a big touchscreen monitor. It got annoying, like somebody who won't shut up about their new iPhone.

[#19 posted by dorksgetlaid2 , January 20, 2009 8:02 PM]

I don't know if you've seen this one:

http://www.popsci.com/content/inauguration-day

[#20 posted by michiganfootball20 , January 20, 2009 9:11 PM]

thats a pretty sick picture. a bunch of my friends got to go to that but i didnt sign up in time!

[#21 posted by Anonymous , January 20, 2009 9:53 PM]

Wow, they DO all look like ants from up here. No wonder aliens tend to use "puny humans" when issuing demands in the movies.

[#22 posted by astraybuffet , January 21, 2009 1:23 AM]

I think I see my flat mate!

[#23 posted by batman567 , January 21, 2009 1:30 AM]

i was also surprised to see the blue roof - it also looked like a swimming pool complex at first glance.

kinda crazy how SKY/CNN seemed to just go on and on and on and on ...

anyway, good luck to obama - lets hope things go a bit better

[#24 posted by Anonymous , January 21, 2009 7:56 AM]

what time was the picture taken?

[#25 posted by Anonymous , January 21, 2009 8:20 AM]

For comparison purposes follow this link (and click on full size image) to another huge gathering on the National Mall in October 1997. Though there is no portion of the crowd between the west front of the capital and the capital reflecting pool, the crowd on the rest of the mall is actually more densely packed than in the inaguration photo, so I'd say the crowd size is quite comparable. TD-Atlanta
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://throughtheveil.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/stand-in-the-gap.jpg&imgrefurl=http://throughtheveil.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/and-the-glory-of-the-lord/&h=1077&w=801&sz=213&tbnid=pnmtBkRm2z2VJM::&tbnh=150&tbnw=112&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstand%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bgap%2Bpictures&hl=en&usg=__1QSahFZNZRGtCuVemUmYRFVcQPg=&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=2&ct=image&cd=1

[#26 posted by manicbassman , January 21, 2009 10:29 AM]

where's Waldo

(Wally for us Brits)

[#27 posted by bolivar13 , January 21, 2009 3:19 PM]

Anyone know when that was taken? I'd guess around 9-10ish - I was there and I know there were a lot more people near the lincoln memorial and reflecting pool later in the morning.

[#28 posted by Anonymous , January 21, 2009 8:13 PM]

Google 'satellite image inaguration'. The first link that comes up lists the time of the image as 11:19 a.m. 1/20/09 so I would expect by that time it is a fair representation of the total crowd. TD- Atlanta