1. Choose where you're standing

The blue pin on the map is your viewpoint. Click or tap anywhere on the map to move it there. The Lat and Lon boxes update to match, or you can type coordinates straight in if you know them. On a phone, Use my location puts the pin where you're standing and turns the view the way your phone is facing.

2. Point it the right way

The two red arms coming out of the pin show your view: everything between them is what you'll see. To turn it, drag either red arm round to face the way you want. To make the view wider or narrower, drag one of the white handles at the ends of the arms.

You can also type a compass bearing into Direction: 0 is north, 90 east, 180 south and 270 west.

3. Adjust the settings if you like

Field of view

How wide the view is, in degrees. 40 is roughly what you take in without turning your head. A smaller number shows less but bigger.

Range

How far to look, in kilometres, up to 200. On a clear day from high ground you really can see over 100km.

Eye height

How high your eyes are above the ground, in metres. 2 is about standing height. Put in the height of a tower or viewing platform to see the view from the top.

Stretch

Auto makes the land a little taller so it fills the picture. 1x shows the true shapes, exactly as your eye would see them.

Ground

In England, the ground close to you is sharpened using the Environment Agency's laser survey. Bare shows just the shape of the land. Buildings keeps towers and houses, with trees thinned out. Buildings and trees shows woods and hedgerows solid, the way they block the view in real life, which works best from hills rather than low ground.

4. Press Render

The view appears at the top of the page. It takes a few seconds, because every hill and valley in view is worked out fresh from real height data.

Reading the view

Land close to you is darker and fades paler into the distance, the way it does in real life. Sea shows as a cool grey-blue. Named hills in view get a label with their height and a red line down to the summit. The highest get labelled first, so zoom in to see the smaller ones. The numbers along the top are compass bearings.

Turning the view

Drag the ruler along the top, the strip with the degrees and the faint arrows at each end, left or right. The picture slides as you go and the red arms on the map turn with it. Let go and it redraws facing the new way.

Zooming in

Drag across the land to draw a box over the part you want a closer look at. Let go and it redraws just that slice, bigger and with more hills named. Zoom out doubles the width of the view again.

Finding a spot

Tap or click on the land to find out exactly where it is. You'll get its position, how far away it is and its height, a link to open it in Google Maps, and a red marker dropped on the map.

Sharing a view

Each time the view is drawn, the address in your browser updates to match. Copy it and anyone who opens it lands on exactly the same view.

Good to know

Heights come from satellite survey data and hill names from OpenStreetMap, so very small features and the odd name may not be perfect. In England, the ground close to you sharpens up a moment after the view appears, using the Environment Agency's laser survey of the land. Ground right next to you is left out, so the distant view gets the room.