good map software/satellite photos?

[dasjoe]

has anybody of you got a good map-software (best with top-down 3d-view)  or satellite pictures of europe with different resolutions?
i want to create an animated gif in which the cam zooms from outer space to earth, and then to my home..

[InCreator]

I would equip myself with
* www.google.com (for imagery)
* map of my neighborhood (can be found anywhere, i mean real map, on a paper) and maybe some pics taken with digital camera
* spare time

And make whole thing with some 3D software, such as 3ds max and render it all through some cool (and censoring my amateurness) filters to give more realistic effect.

[dasjoe]

thanks, that got me an idea! i need heightmaps of my neighborhood, and then i could feed terragen with the data, that'd be cool.
so. anyone knows good heightmap-sites?

[Timosity]

I just typed satellite photos into google and found this site

http://www.terraserver.com/

I searched up Sydney where I live and I could view a satellite image and pan around

I'm sure there's other sites you can find as well