Astronomy

Divine Sky: The Artistry of Astronomical Maps
Divine Sky: The Artistry of Astronomical Maps is a small online exhibition featuring a selection of celestial maps from the library holdings of the University of Michigan. Divine Sky focuses on the fertile period between 1600 and 1900 that produced some of astronomy’s greatest treasures. This astronomical Golden Age…   Read more →
Posted on Monday, June 29, 2009 at 8:47 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Astronomy
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
After last week’s launch, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has now settled into orbit around the Moon. A USGS press release points out the cartographic aspects of the LRO’s mission: “Among the instruments carried on LRO, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) will acquire high-resolution stereo images that will allow the…   Read more →
Posted on Friday, June 26, 2009 at 1:59 PM
Categories: Astronomy
More Book Reviews
More reviews of books previously mentioned here: Directions reviews GIS Cartography: A Guide to Effective Map Design (see previous entry). The New York Times reviews The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet, a copy of which I now have and expect to read shortly (previously: The Selected Works of T….   Read more →
Posted on Monday, June 22, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Books, GIS
Dunhuang Star Chart
Yesterday’s Astronomy Picture of the Day featured a portion of the Dunhuang Star Chart, “one of the most impressive documents in the history of astronomy.” A four-metre scroll dating from the seventh century Tang Dynasty, it’s apparently the first representation of Chinese astronomy. More on the chart from Nature,…   Read more →
Posted on Saturday, June 20, 2009 at 7:59 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Astronomy
Testing Light-Pollution Maps Redux
Tony Flanders continues his critique of light-pollution maps; this time, he notes that the brightnesses of the respective colours are misleading: “the orange zone appears distinctly darker than the green zone, belying the fact that skies are in fact 9× brighter in the orange than in the green.” He…   Read more →
Posted on Monday, June 15, 2009 at 8:22 PM
Categories: Astronomy
Testing Light-Pollution Maps
Sky and Telescope’s Tony Flanders decides to test the veracity of light-pollution maps. “They’re based on satellite data collected more than a decade ago, over a long timespan, in varying conditions, and massaged by an experimental mathematical model of how skyglow spreads,” he explains. But his measurements, taken around…   Read more →
Posted on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 3:44 PM
Categories: Astronomy
Google Sky Map for Android
Further to this morning’s post: it’s called Sky Map, and it’s for mobile phones running Google’s Android operating system….   Read more →
Posted on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 5:25 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Mobile Devices
Google’s Star Droid: Astronomy Software for Mobile Phones
The Sunday Times reports on an upcoming (“as early as this week”) astronomy application for mobile phones: “The Google software, called Star Droid, uses GPS technology found in most new handsets to identify the position of the user and then compares this with existing maps of space. It automatically attaches…   Read more →
Posted on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Mobile Devices
GPS for Amateur Astronomers
It may surprise you that GPS gets used a lot in amateur astronomy, which in recent years has gotten awfully computerized. Now, you might not think that a technology that locates where you are on Earth has a lot to do with observing the rest of the universe, but it…   Read more →
Posted on Saturday, April 4, 2009 at 9:18 PM
Categories: Astronomy, GPS
Moon Maps and Star Charts for the iPhone and iPod Touch
I really shouldn’t be surprised by the number of lunar and star map applications for the iPod and iPhone touch that are aimed at amateur astronomers: I already have to bring a lot of gear out to the field as it is; if I can keep my charts on my…   Read more →
Posted on Saturday, April 4, 2009 at 10:36 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Mobile Devices
Globes of the Solar System
If you’re interested in buying a globe of a world not the Earth, you have three options available. The Moon Replogle makes a 12-inch globe of the Moon that is touted as being NASA-approved. It rests on a clear plastic base, from which it can be picked up and moved….   Read more →
Posted on Friday, April 3, 2009 at 9:10 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Globes
Mapping Galaxies to Two Billion Light Years
The Six-Degree Field Galaxy Survey has released a map showing the position and clustering patterns of more than 100,000 nearby galaxies — of course, by “nearby,” they mean “within two billion light years.” The map, which covers 80 percent of the southern sky, is the result of the Survey’s…   Read more →
Posted on Friday, April 3, 2009 at 7:54 PM
Categories: Astronomy
Planetary Maps
I frequently post entries about mapping the other planets and moons in our solar system not just because I’m nuts about astronomy (though I am), but also because this is where maps of new places are coming from. Our own world has long since filled in the empty spaces; there’s…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 8:33 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Mapping Triton
Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, was visited for the first and only time on August 25 and 26, 1989, when Voyager 2 hurtled past it. Since then, any maps of that moon were based on images taken from the sunlit side. Now, however, in a paper presented at…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 8:23 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Silverlight: ArcGIS API, Virtual Earth Map Control, WorldWide Telescope
A flurry of announcements last week related to Silverlight, Microsoft’s rich media browser plugin. Some will be of interest largely to geospatial professionals or web developers, like the public beta of the ArcGIS API for Silverlight or the Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control. Me, I’m delighted to see that Microsoft…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 3:06 PM
Categories: Astronomy, GIS, Hacks & Mashups
Titan in Stereo
Topographic maps of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, have been created from stereo pairs of radar images obtained by the Cassini probe. “The new flyover maps show, for the first time, the 3-D topography and height of the 1,200-meter (4,000-foot) mountain tops, the north polar lake country, the vast dunes…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Google Earth: Live Mars Imagery and More
Like its historical imagery, Google Earth 5.0’s Mars features have been updated not very long after the launch of Google Earth 5.0. In addition to layers showing historical maps of Mars (like Schiaparelli’s) and narrated guided tours (that really do work as an introduction to all the Mars material), there…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 10:08 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Google Earth
Astrotagging
What geotagging is to ordinary photography, astrotagging is to astrophotography — embedding machine-readable data that identifies the location of a photo. But astrophotography is harder: orientation, field of view and pixel scale come into play if you want to map a photo on Google Sky or WorldWide Telescope. And it’s…   Read more →
Posted on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 8:09 AM
Categories: Astronomy
The Cambridge Double Star Atlas
A review on astronomy enthusiast site Cloudy Nights of the new Cambridge Double Star Atlas, which, unlike the Cambridge Star Atlas itself (reviewed last month), is coil-bound rather than hardcover. The reviewer, a double star observer, compares its usefulness in the field to Sky and Telescope’s Pocket Sky Atlas…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 9:37 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Books
Mapping Mars
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…   Read more →
Posted on Friday, February 27, 2009 at 5:20 PM
Categories: Astronomy
Science on a Sphere: Return to the Moon
Astronomy reports on Return to the Moon, a short film designed for the Science on a Sphere platform (see previous entry): “‘Return to the Moon’ takes imagery and data sets from the Apollo, Clementine, and other missions and projects them on a 6-foot sphere. The results give the startling impression…   Read more →
Posted on Friday, February 27, 2009 at 1:36 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Globes
Review: Two Inexpensive Star Atlases
Sky and Telescope’s Pocket Sky Atlas by Roger W. Sinnott Sky Publishing, 2006. Coilbound, 124 pp. ISBN 1-931559-31-7 The Cambridge Star Atlas, Third Edition by Wil Tirion Cambridge University Press, 2001. Hardcover, 96 pp. ISBN 0-521-800846 Rod Mollise’s recent look at star atlases (see previous entry) reminded me that I’ve…   Read more →
Posted on Friday, February 20, 2009 at 12:39 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Book Reviews
Uncle Rod Looks at Star Atlases
I’ve been meaning to do a review of the star atlases and books about star charts I have in my possession. Until I get around to doing that, please read this post by Rod Mollise — “Uncle Rod” — which reviews a number of star atlases he’s seen and used….   Read more →
Posted on Monday, February 16, 2009 at 10:06 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Books
Google Earth 5.0: Oceans, Historic Imagery and Mars
Google Earth 5.0 was released today, with a bunch of new features. The ocean layers were not unexpected: ocean floor bathymetry was released a couple of weeks ago (see Stefan’s critique), and the previously announced presence of Sylvia Earle at today’s launch (CNet, Google Earth Blog) telegraphed the focus…   Read more →
Posted on Monday, February 2, 2009 at 1:43 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Google Earth, Satellite & Aerial
Mapping the Moon
The story of how National Geographic’s iconic 1969 map of the Moon — the first complete map of the Moon — was made is recounted, with considerable digression, by retired cartographer Richard Furno, who worked on the project, on Kelso’s Corner: part one, part two. The real challenge was…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Thomas Harriot: First to Map the Moon?
Englishman Thomas Harriot may have beaten Galileo to the punch. According to an article in February’s Astronomy and Geophysics, Harriot may have been the first known person to observe the Moon through a telescope — and, more importantly for us — the first to draw maps of what he saw….   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 1:03 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Astronomy
Milky Way Tube Map
Samuel Arbesman has done a map of the Milky Way in the style of Harry Beck’s London Underground map. “I have attempted to actually make this map as accurate as possible, where each line corresponds to an arm of our galaxy, and the stations are actual places in their…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 8:53 PM
Categories: Astronomy
Using Stereophotoclinometry to Map the Solar System
The New York Times profiles Dr. Robert W. Gaskell, who is working on producing topographic maps of various planets and moons of the solar system. Just now Dr. Gaskell is mapping all of Mercury and eight moons of Saturn. He also has a NASA contract to do part of a…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, December 25, 2008 at 8:18 PM
Categories: Astronomy
MARTIAN: Mapping the Martian Crust
MARTIAN — “MARs Tools for Interactive ANalysis” — depicts a number of layers relating to Martian geology — or rather, areology — via the Google Maps — or rather, Google Mars — API. Via Google Maps Mania. Previously: Topo Maps of Mars; Google Mars….   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 at 6:59 PM
Categories: Astronomy
Mapping Phobos and Deimos
From a cartographic perspective, the problem with Mars’s two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, is that they are not in the least bit spherical or even spheroidal — they are quite bumpy and irregular. If you thought map projections were problematic before, well. The Planetary Society Blog reports on…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 9:09 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Map Projections
Modified Mars
Frans Blok has been imagining maps of a future, terraformed Mars. He writes, “Almost ten years ago I made this map of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars. Recently I created a more sophisticated visualisation of a terraformed Mars, although no longer directly linked to Robinson’s novels. This map has the…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, September 21, 2008 at 6:05 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Imaginary Places
Mapping Astronomical Observatories
Nausicaa Delmotte has maps of the world’s astronomical observatories: plotted on Google Maps or in KML or plotted on a static world map. Via La Cartoteca….   Read more →
Posted on Saturday, August 9, 2008 at 5:53 PM
Categories: Astronomy
The Dione Atlas
Cassini’s imaging team has released an atlas of Saturn’s moon Dione. The atlas is available as a set of 15 PDF files at a scale of 1:1,000,000. Via Bad Astronomy and Universe Today. This is the third atlas of a Saturnian moon that has been released by the Cassini…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, May 25, 2008 at 11:50 AM
Categories: Astronomy
WorldWide Telescope Reviews
Ogle Earth’s Stefan Geens, normally a (fellow) Mac user, borrows a Windows machine for his in-depth review of WorldWide Telescope: “My initial impression stands: WWT is a wonderful piece of software that excels at rendering Earth’s view of the universe onto the screen in a beautiful and compelling way. But…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 9:36 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Software
WorldWide Telescope Now Available
Apparently, “by the end of the month” means something a little sooner — i.e., right now: WorldWide Telescope is now available for download. See coverage from Astronomy, Sky and Telescope and Virtual Earth, an Evangelist’s Blog. It’s a beta (probably permanently so, according to S&T), and the installation process looks…   Read more →
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 7:56 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Software
WorldWide Telescope This Month?
Digital Earth Blog notes reports that Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope may be released by the end of this month — or at least Bill Gates has been quoted saying that it will. I’ll be very interested to know the system requirements. Previously: Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope; WorldWide Telescope Announced; Reactions to WorldWide…   Read more →
Posted on Monday, May 12, 2008 at 7:32 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Software
First Map of an Extrasolar Planet
Astronomers have produced the first map of a planet outside the solar system. The resolution is admittedly low — all we know is that there’s a “hot spot” offset from the planetary noon by some thirty degrees — but what do you expect from a planet orbiting a star 63…   Read more →
Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 11:11 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Schiaparelli’s Maps of Mars
Until Mariner 4 photographed craters on Mars in 1965, Earth-bound telescopes were the only way to map the red planet. BibliOdyssey looks at Schiaparelli’s 19th-century maps of Mars, which gave rise to the idea that canals — canali or channels in Italian — criscrossed the Martian surface. It was…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 7:28 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Astronomy
Kaguya’s Lunar Topo Maps
JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, has announced a lunar map generated by the Kaguya (Selene) probe: “Using the Laser Altimeter (LALT) aboard the Lunar Explorer KAGUYA, JAXA acquired data covering the entire Moon’s surface and produced a topographical map of the Moon in cooperation with the National astronomical…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 8:59 PM
Categories: Astronomy
Topography of Titan
The Planetary Society Blog reports: On Monday, with no fanfare, JPL posted the first detailed topographic map of part of Titan. I suppose the map doesn’t strictly qualify as a pretty picture, but it is a tremendously important data set. … The RADAR team produced this map by comparing…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 7:50 AM
Categories: Astronomy
A Map of Dione and a Planetary Gazetteer
The Planetary Society’s blog reports that the International Astronomical Union has approved new names for features on Saturn’s moon Dione, and provides an equatorial map with the new names added to spaceprobe imagery. But what also caught my attention was the entry’s link to the USGS’s Gazetteer of Planetary…   Read more →
Posted on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 9:00 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Toponyms
Google Sky on the Web
I suppose a web-based standalone version of Google Sky was inevitable, once the Google Maps API supported it, and now it’s here. Highlights include infrared, microwave and historical-map layers with opacity controls and a series of image collections from space telescopes linked from the bottom. (I should note, as…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 9:10 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Online Maps
Google Maps Astronomy Mashups?
Mike Pegg notes that despite the fact that it’s been a few months since the Google Maps API supported Moon, Mars and Sky, “we have not been inundated with Google Maps mash-ups that have taken advantage of these new astronomical features.” He gives some examples. As for me, I can…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 3:50 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Hacks & Mashups
Reactions to WorldWide Telescope
To begin with, here is the video of the TED talk introducing WorldWide Telescope: Reactions, many of which make explicit comparisons to Google Sky: Bad Astronomy: “This does look very cool. It’s much like Google Sky, but from Microsoft’s direction. Google tends to build software that allows people to add…   Read more →
Posted on Monday, March 3, 2008 at 1:39 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Software
Mapping the Moon’s South Pole
The Moon’s polar regions are not easily observed from the Earth (or from non-polar Lunar orbit), but NASA has obtained high-resolution radar maps of the Moon’s south pole by using the Goldstone Solar System Radar in the Mojave Desert. The maps are 50 times more detailed than the one-kilometre-resolution imagery…   Read more →
Posted on Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 8:38 AM
Categories: Astronomy
WorldWide Telescope Announced
Microsoft gave a demonstration today of its forthcoming WorldWide Telescope application, the site for which is now online, but we still don’t have very much hard information about it. A lot of reactions. Robert Scoble, who when he saw a demo of the software said it reduced him to tears,…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 8:54 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Software
‘Extraterrestrial Islands in a Methane Sea’
Since, as you know, I’m deeply interested in the mapping of the other planets and moons of the solar system, I was very much interested in two recent posts by Peter Minton, in which he takes Cassini imagery of Saturn’s moon Titan and generates maps from that imagery: here…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope
Microsoft will be launching a competitor to Google Earth’s Sky feature, called “WorldWide Telescope,” on February 27, TechCrunch reports. The downloadable desktop software is claimed to be “significantly better” than either Google Earth or Stellarium in terms of data and interface, but it will be (sigh) Windows-only at least at…   Read more →
Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Software
Google Sky Lawsuit
A contractor is suing Google for allegedly stealing the idea for Google Earth’s Sky feature. Stefan argues that the lawsuit is “demonstrably frivolous,” citing evidence that the contractor was not the first person to moot the idea. From my perspective, the features the plaintiff claims he suggested aren’t non-obvious —…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 10:13 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Google Earth
‘Mapping the Universe’ at the Adler Planetarium
The Festival of Maps continues to ripple through the media: yesterday’s New York Times carried a review of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, focusing on the remarkable Atwood sphere, which predated more modern planetarium projectors, and the Mapping the Universe exhibition, which showcases the Adler’s collection of antique star charts….   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 6:39 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Chicago Festival of Maps
Light Pollution Maps
Light pollution is the bane of astronomers worldwide. Cities generate so much light that their glow can be seen from great distances; that sky glow interferes with astronomical observations, reducing what can be seen, both with the naked eye and through telescopes. It’s bad enough to close observatories. There are…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, February 3, 2008 at 11:46 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Google Earth
Iapetus
The Cassini-Huygens mission’s map of Iapetus — one of Saturn’s moons — has been updated to reflect the exciting (to us astronomy geeks) images taken during Cassini’s flyby of the moon last September. (Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.) Via Universe Today….   Read more →
Posted on Friday, February 1, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Google Sky Updated, API Supports Astronomy Layers
I still find the Google Sky interface less appealing than some dedicated planetarium software I’ve tried, but I’m still interested in the most recent updates, including, among other things, imagery from space-based telescopes and imagery layers from 17th-century celestial maps. (Were these orthorectified? The Cassini overlay is surprisingly close;…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, January 20, 2008 at 9:56 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups
Mapping the Solar System: Mercury and Titan
It wasn’t so long ago that our world maps had parts that were either left empty or left to conjecture. “Here be dragons.” We haven’t had to worry about unmapped, unknown parts of the Earth — terra incognita — for a while, but this isn’t true for the rest of…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 12:24 PM
Categories: Astronomy
Google Moon Updated
One of the most common questions from beginning amateur astronomers is whether you can see the Apollo landing sites on the moon through a telescope. You can’t. You can, however, see detailed layers for the Apollo moon missions on Google Moon, which got a major upgrade last week; other upgrades…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007 at 8:28 PM
Categories: Astronomy
Sky in Google Earth
Google Earth 4.2 was released overnight. Perhaps you’ve heard about one of its new features — and I don’t mean support for KML 2.2. Sky in Google Earth: click on the Sky button and the program transforms itself from an earth viewer to stargazing software, with multiple layers of astronomical…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 at 7:09 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Google Earth
Mars HiRISE Images
If you also like satellite images of other planets, proceed immediately to the home page of the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: “During its mission, HiRISE will collect thousands of images of the Martian surface, covering only one percent of the planet. The camera’s advanced optics allow…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, July 22, 2007 at 9:07 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Satellite & Aerial
Topo Maps of Mars
It’s a bit presumptuous to call them “hiker’s maps,” as the European Space Agency does in its announcement, but the Mars Express scientists have generated several sample topographic maps of the Iani Chaos region of Mars, in an exercise that seems to be a proof of concept. Should such…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, February 15, 2007 at 12:00 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Topo Maps & Trails
A Book Roundup
Much book-related news has been accumulating over here; past time I shared it. Surveying, Mapping and GIS reviews Dava Sobel’s Longitude, a book about John Harrison, who discovered how to determine longitude. I think I need to read this book. Google Sightseeing’s book Off the Map is reviewed by the…   Read more →
3
Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 2:57 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Astronomy, Books, Cartography, Google Earth, Historical Maps
The U.S. Naval Observatory’s Celestial Atlases
Highlights of this page about the collection of the U.S. Naval Observatory include scans from several celestial atlases, including Bayer’s Uranometria (1661), Flamsteed’s Atlas céleste (1774), and Jamieson’s Celestial Atlas (1822). Via MetaFilter….   Read more →
Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 at 3:23 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Astronomy
Barnard’s Stars
Edward Emerson Barnard’s posthumous 1927 work, A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way, has been digitized in its entirety and put on the web by Georgia Tech; here is the web site. Browsable by region and searchable; both photographic plates and charts (at right, the Pleiades) are…   Read more →
1
Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 at 9:36 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Huygens Probe Images of Titan
Images of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, taken by the Huygens probe during its descent through Titan’s atmosphere last year, have been released. Mercator projection and stereographic versions have also been made, which makes them maps of a sort. More from the European Space Agency, NASA’s Cassini-Huygens page (check the…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 11:35 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Historical Celestial Atlases on the Web
If you’re interested in antique celestial atlases, you’ll want to bookmark Historical Celestial Atlases on the Web, which provides links to a number of online reproductions of old star atlases. Via La Cartoteca. See previous entries: The Face of the Moon; Star Atlases; Celestial Atlases, Antique and Modern….   Read more →
Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 at 12:40 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Astronomy
Maps of Jupiter
NASA has released maps of Jupiter based on images taken by the Cassini-Huygens probe as it passed by the planet in 2000. Cylindrical and north and south polar projections are available. More from the BBC. Via Slashgeo and La Cartoteca….   Read more →
2
Posted on Thursday, March 30, 2006 at 1:25 PM
Categories: Astronomy
Google Mars
Google Mars: in the same vein as Google Moon (see previous entry); with visual-spectrum, infrared and elevation imagery. Here’s Google’s FAQ. Via Cartography, amongst many others. (Update: Announcement on the Google Blog.) Also, as Stefan notes, a Mars layer is coming to Google Earth. Update: See also Frank’s post as…   Read more →
1
Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 at 10:16 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Google Earth
USGS Astrogeology Research Program
Via La Cartoteca, I discover images and maps from the USGS’s Astrogeology Research Program: a collection of imagery, GIS data, and map products (e.g., globes for sale) for other planets and moons from our Solar System….   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, March 2, 2006 at 8:35 PM
Categories: Astronomy
Google and NASA
The big news this week for Google watchers this week is the announcement Wednesday of a memorandum of understanding between Google and NASA’s Ames Research Center. Press releases from ARC and Google; news coverage from the San Jose Mercury News (reprinted in the Miami Herald); via Google Earth Blog and…   Read more →
2
Posted on Friday, September 30, 2005 at 9:30 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Satellite & Aerial
The Full Moon Atlas
The Full Moon Atlas: “A complete series of interactive lunar maps, with more than 2,500 geographic formations (including craters, mountains, lakes, seas and valleys) identified simply by moving your mouse cursor over the feature.” Javascript required; doesn’t work properly in Safari. Thanks again to peacay. I’ve linked to several web…   Read more →
1
Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 11:34 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Map of Pluto
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have generated a colour map of Pluto; it’s a bit of a stretch to call the map “detailed,” but on the other hand it’s rather amazing to have any detail on a map of a tiny planet four to six billion kilometres away. It…   Read more →
5
Posted on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 at 8:17 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Google Moon
In honour of the 36th anniversary of the first moon landing, Google Moon, with a Google Maps interface, NASA imagery, the Apollo landing sites, and a fun gag at maximum zoom (Boing Boing, Google Blog, MetaFilter)….   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 7:24 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Comet Machholz
Here are two sky charts that track the path of Comet Machholz, which will be visible to the naked eye for the next couple of months. Via MetaFilter….   Read more →
Posted on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 at 12:44 PM
Categories: Astronomy
More Lunar Maps
Also via Here Be Dragons, another fine digital collection of lunar maps, from the Lunar and Planetary Institute. These maps were made by the USAF in the 1960s — back when the U.S. government had a vested interest in accurate relief maps. They’re 1:1,000,000 scale and are downloadable in several…   Read more →
Posted on Friday, July 2, 2004 at 7:08 PM
Categories: Astronomy
Virtual Moon Atlas
Virtual Moon Atlas is free lunar atlas software for Windows; certain functions appear to require OpenGL support (via the Astronomy tribe)….   Read more →
Posted on Monday, April 5, 2004 at 10:42 AM
Categories: Astronomy
The Face of the Moon; Star Atlases
The Cartoonist has discovered the Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and Technology in Kansas City, which has quite a bit of stuff on celestial mapping. In addition to an exhibition of rare books and maps called The Face of the Moon: Galileo to Apollo, the library’s site has made…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 12:12 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Astronomy, Exhibitions
Logarithmic Maps of the Universe
These logarithmic maps of the universe measure the distance from the Earth’s core to absolutely everything, from kilometres to megaparsecs, from the mantle to the microwave background of the universe (via Cartographie tribe)….   Read more →
Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 at 8:31 AM
Categories: Astronomy
Lunar Atlases
Lunar Atlases brings together a couple of atlases of the moon and other lunar photography. The atlases are comprised of photographs taken by lunar orbiters rather than traditional atlas maps. The photos are sorted by feature and coordinates, though. Via Plep, naturally….   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, January 22, 2004 at 9:43 PM
Categories: Astronomy

Note: Entries from 2003 were not categorized and will not appear in the category archives. Please consult the monthly archives.