[X] My Assistant

[Phil Stooke]

Here's a bit of something I have been working on for the last few months. I am making a high resolution photomosaic of 433 Eros. It will eventually go in the Planetary Data System.

This square image is part of the mosaic, hot off the press. It extends from approximately 60 north to 60 south, and 240 west longitude (right edge) to 360 (AKA 0) at the left edge. The original is 5000 pixels square. The projection is Simple Cylindrical. When finished the original will be 14400 by 7200 pixels.

I leave on Monday for a couple of weeks in the UK. When I get back I'll post a version of this with a grid, and the two polar sections I have also done.

I should add that in areas where this appears distorted (lower left region), this is caused by the extreme irregularity of Eros in this region.

Phil

[Juramike]

Very, very cool!


(I cant wait to get the scissors and tape! Now I have to go see if I can find a potato for a model....)

[chuckclark]

Very, very cool!
(I cant wait to get the scissors and tape! Now I have to go see if I can find a potato for a model....)

Here are several views of the folded-up CSNB (constant-scale natural boundary) map of Eros. This map has not quite the same data set as that posted above -- there are no mosaic sections, and certain craters (bright-walled ones, I think, but I'll have to check) are shown in red. There are two classes of "red" craters shown: simple circles and circles with stars. At the moment I can't recall the distinction.

The point is to show you what you're going for if you give folding a go.

Cheers.

Folding Tips:
1) When cutting it out, leave a bit of paper as a tab on one side of the seam to fold under the pieces as they come together.
2) This "extra" paper (let's assume it is white) is inconsistent with the 3-D geometry -- you'll see what I mean as tries to bunch up on iteself -- so, to release the compressional stress make a series of short (transverse) snips from the edge of the white to the edge of the map.
3A) The little scissors that come with small swiss army knives work well for cutting.
3B) 1/4" clear scotch tape works well; the narrower the better. I'd use 1/8" if I could find it and were a fussier sort of person.
3C) Run the tape transverse across the seam, and only as often as you need to to hold it together. The touch or feel of folding up a CSNB map is, for many, counterintuitive at first. It is not like folding up, for example, a cube or a cuboctohedron.
Not to digress, but I once had a class of fifth graders, working in groups, successfully fold up CSNB maps of Earth; so you can probably do it too.
4) Joining the last sections is tricky because you can no longer get your fingers inside to resist the pressure you need to apply the tape. A narrow rod or straw (better with a ball on the end) can be poked in through a tape-gap antipodal to the spot you still need to tape and maneuvered into position to resist taping pressure.
I make a lot of these, so I bent a small (3/16") whorl at one end of a 10" length of piano wire, putting the other end into a file handle.

Here also is a series of photos of a "real" model of Eros with the edge of this CSNB map marked in white.

Attached thumbnail(s)