Is it possible to ?

[El]

I'm new to GPS. Thinking of getting a Garmin 60 CSX. What I would like to do is locate old adobe and home locations to metal detect.What I would like to know, is it possible to take an old topo map (late 1800 & early 1900) from historical map web sites and overlay them on to current topo maps in-order to obtain coordinates of the locations?

Thanks you,

El

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

It's (fairly) easily done with software like OziExplorer or TTQV.

 

[El]

Thanks for the reply Andrew.

I'm a little technically challenged so which one would be more user friendly and where would I buy one and what would be the approximate cost?

I was also thinking. Do I have to overlay the historical topo map or is it possible to call up the map and find the coordinates with one of the software packages you mentioned?

Thank you,

El

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

TTQV which I sell is not chap and is rather advanced. OziExplorer easy to use and (I think) you should be able to do with the free version. I haven't kept up to date with it but, check www.oziexplorer.com
What you do, in a gist is:
What you need is a scanned map. Open it with Ozi and calibrate - it's not hard. Using current topo map, pick several points for which you know co-ordinates, input these co-ordinates and done. You can get co-ordinates for any point on that map. In theory, you could calibrate even a map that was drawn on a napkin but, it wouldn't be very accurate because its lacking proper scale. The downside is; some old maps are not much better for accuracy than these drawn on a napkin...

 

[El]

I'll give Oziexplorer a try first.

Thank you.