Emily on the Planetary Society Blog: “Planetary cartographer Phil Stooke has been working on a cool project to compose and compare maps of Mars that show how we saw the planet throughout the Space Age.” It is very cool. The grayscale maps, ranging from a USAF 1962 map based on telescopic observations (canals?!) to a 2000 map based on Mars Global Surveyor imagery, are all on the same cylindrical projection, which makes direct comparisons possible. It also means that I was able to take the liberty to create a slideshow using Phil’s maps:

(I must say that I love the crossfades.) For larger versions of these maps, see Emily’s post.