I am really confused. Does anyone have any idea why.. On Terraserver my home coordinates are Latitude 41.96272 Longitude -87.66402

However on my GPS they are Latitude 41.57762 Longitude -87.39803

I know for a fact that my Garmin GPS is in sync because I go geocaching all of the time. But Terraserver gives me a precise satellite photo of my home.

Any idea why the difference and couldn't this conflict be a little dangerous. The difference is about 75 miles give or take.

If you know why this is happening please let me know or help me figure it out.

Thanks

Cameron

Have you checked the datum on your GPS versus terra server? I don't use Terra Server all tht often, so I don't know what datum they use, but most of the time, when you have an issue with different coords, it is usually the map datum.

The other option is that they are incorrect.

Good luck,

Garrett

I'll bet you've got your GPS set to a different format of lat-long. Terraserver, and most internet mapping programs, are DD.ddddd, but I'll bet you've got your's set to DD-mm.mmmm' or even DD-mm'ss.ss"

Good catch.

41.57762 -> 41 deg, 57.762 minutes , 57.762 / 60 = 0.9627, so it's 41.9627 decimal degrees.

One of two things is going on.
Your GPS is, in all probability, using the WGS-84 Dataum, while the vast majority of topo maps use NAD-27. There can be pretty major differences in position data.

the other issue might be the format of your lat/long display.

40.56734 degrees is not the same is 40 56.734 which is 40 degress 56.734 minutes.

But you should really be learning and using UTM anyway, even for Geocaching. It's a better, faster and easier system to use and it's well supported by Geocache. These problems don't exist in UTM at all, and for geocaching UTM just plain kicks butt.