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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Image Processing Techniques _ Grand Tour Google Earth Megaoverlay Set

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 01:56 PM

NOTE: DUE TO FORUM ATTACHMENT SIZE LIMIT, I HAD TO SEPARATE THIS OVERLAY SET INTO MANY POSTS, YOU WILL HAVE TO CHECK THE REPLIES BELOW AND DOWNLOAD THE PLANETS INDIVIDUALLY (Venus, Moon, Mars is in multiple sections due to particularly large size of their sets and to make room for future updates like new models for future landers)

The Grand Tour overlay is an overlay set of the Solar System I have been developing overtime since 2010. The initial overlay set was lost in 2010 in a hard drive failure and for years I just forgot about it. In 2015, I had much time on my hands and I began work to redo the project better than before. I was close to completion before college courses ramped up and I forgot to finish it. In 2020 due to well... "Terrestrial Events" I had an excess of time to work on stuff and I finally got around to finishing the overlay set bigger and better than I even imagined it in 2015. This probably took several hundred hours to compile.

I have always wanted to share this overlay set on UMSF since it uses a lot of contributions by members here like maps, overlay sets, and even models.

This overlay set contains:
Overlays of 67 additional planetary objects
Models of 40 landers and images from many of them
IAU approved nomenclature for 45 objects
1,000 geolocated NASA Photojournal images
Atmospheric effects for Venus, Titan, Triton, and Pluto

This is just a thing introducing and explaining how the overlay set works since it's really big. The downloads for the planets themselves are in replies below and in the next page.

Grand_Tour_Introduction.kmz ( 7.32K ) : 632

To organize this overlay set, create a folder, SET TO "Show contents as options" and place the downloads found below in the replies into it. Venus, Moon, and Mars have a parent folder in the overlays download where you can also put the spacecraft, nomenclature, and NASA photojournal downloads. You should end up with a folder with subfolders for Mercury, Venus, Moon, Mars, Mars moons, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Dwarf planets, Asteroids, comets, and extra.

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 01:58 PM

Mercury, includes overlay set and nomenclature

Mercury.kmz ( 87.6K ) : 605

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:01 PM

Venus Overlays, includes surface, clouds, and science based overlays.

Venus_overlay_UMSf.kmz ( 29.74K ) : 1633

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:04 PM

Venus image tour (Geolocated NASA photojournal images of Venus, many of which are added into the basic overlay as areas of higher resolution)

Venus_Image_Tour_UMSF.kmz ( 60.41K ) : 589

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:06 PM

Venus Lander Models, download the Venus overlay set from the post above or else they will be on Earth. They are sized to scale as if the Earth sphere was a slightly smaller Venus sphere.

Venus_Lander_UMSF.kmz ( 1.33MB ) : 594

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:07 PM

Venus IAU approved nomenclature

Venus_Nomenclature_UMSF.kmz ( 183.24K ) : 588

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:10 PM

Additional Lunar Overlays, mainly science based (including vastly improved resolution topography on left of this image compared to default provided by Google which isn't even aligned correctly)

Moon_overlays_UMSF.kmz ( 83.07K ) : 3492

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:14 PM

A few dozen updated lander models for the moon (corrected locations as well as more recent probes Google has not added as well as higher resolution imagery for them)

Moon_lander_update_UMSF.kmz ( 2.27MB ) : 1826

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:16 PM

Updated lunar nomenclature (it's huge, it includes the lettered craters not shown in default Moon layer which is outdated by over a decade)

Moon_nomenclature_UMSF.kmz ( 1.15MB ) : 587

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:18 PM

Extra Mars Overlays (Mainly science based like gravity and mineral abundance)

Mars_Overlays_UMSF.kmz ( 47.06K ) : 872

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:20 PM

Some models for updated Mars landers like InSight and the located Mars 3

Mars_Lander_UMSF.kmz ( 918.63K ) : 636

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:21 PM

Updated IAU approved Mars nomenclature (The default on Mars is outdated by a few years)
Mars_Nomenclature_UMSF.kmz ( 252.77K ) : 586

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:23 PM

Martian Moons (they looks like potatoes but I can't make them potatoes in GE)
Martian_Moons.kmz ( 12.68K ) : 615

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:25 PM

Jupiter and moons, several layers of the gas giant show it's changing clouds overtime

Jupiter_Megaoverlay.kmz ( 304.54K ) : 1513

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:27 PM

Saturn and Moons, includes Huygens model and landing collage. Huygens is to scale of Earth, as in it's like there's a Titan-size globe. Titan also has realistic atmospheric effects visible by turning on sun and Earth atmosphere.

Saturn_Megaoverlay.kmz ( 559.93K ) : 711

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:29 PM

(continued from previous page) Uranus and Moons

Uranus_and_Moons.kmz ( 21.13K ) : 607

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:31 PM

Neptune and moons, Triton has a faint atmosphere on it.

Neptune_and_Moons.kmz ( 23.18K ) : 605

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:32 PM

Dwarf Planets. One of the most beautiful things is to turn on Earth atmosphere and Sun on Pluto then view it from behind to see almost exactly what New Horizon's saw.

Dwarf_Planets.kmz ( 145.06K ) : 628

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:34 PM

Asteroids (aside from Vesta, Bennu, and Ryugu, they look weird since GE can't render potatoes)

Asteroids.kmz ( 426.5K ) : 607

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:36 PM

Comets (Note, many look weird since they too are potatoes) Here is the Deep Impact impactor collage

Comets.kmz ( 10.93K ) : 626

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:37 PM

Last but not least, the Sun and a temperature map of an exoplanet

Extra.kmz ( 10.34K ) : 645

Posted by: Antdoghalo Sep 21 2020, 02:58 PM

This is a reduced size basic version of the overlay set. It has only lower resolution overlays for those with dinosaur computers unable to handle 16K textures. If 16K+ textures can be handled on your computer with Google Earth then you don't need this.
Grand_Tour_Lite.kmz ( 2.4K ) : 617

Posted by: Antdoghalo Dec 7 2020, 05:45 PM

I recently got a newer even better computer and currently I am working on improving this overlay set with higher resolution maps, orbiter models, updates, and experimenting on some things. The updated version will not come out until next year though.