[X] My Assistant

[Yadgar]

Hi(gh)!

I'm a raytracing (POV-Ray!) as well as an astronomy/space flight aficionado since many years and I have always admired those huge cylindrical maps of planets and moons stitched together from images gained by space probes. So I wonder how they are made - how to get exact information about each original image's viewing geometry and illumination phase angle, and what software to use to distort them appropriately to match the cylindrical map projection... can anyone around here give me some clues - or is it somewhat like a "trade secret"?

Currently, the "big thing" in making such maps is Mercury, next to Vesta, which will start to be mapped by the DAWN probe within the coming few months... I really would like to be among those who build their own planetary maps for modeling the Solar System!

See you in Khyberspace - www.khyberspace.de

Yadgar

[JohnVV]

there are a few different ways
Some NOT free and VERY expensive
others are opensource gpl2 or 3

there are about as many ways as people doing it
some use MMPS
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~arcus/mmps/
it is very handy
and the program "img2png "
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=4979

others use a GIS program like SAGA-gis , or GRASS , --there are many

Myself i use ISIS3 from the USGS and NASA ( Linux ONLY !!!!!!)
http://isis.astrogeology.usgs.gov/index.html
along with Nip2/Vips
http://www.vips.ecs.soton.ac.uk/index.php?title=VIPS
then add in The Gimp
http://www.gimp.org/

also you will find that ( most here ) use Linux for there operating system .
some of the programs DO NOT work on Microsoft , other programs do .

Now ISIS3 dose take up A LOT and i DO MEAN A LOT of disk space
an example for Cassini
the isis install is small 762 Meg + 640 Meg of data
BUT
MRO for mars takes up 44 Gig of data
LRO ( what i am using right now ) is 24 Gig of data
and Cassini is ~ about 50 Gig ? if i recall right .

then there is the map . Just how BIG dose one want ??? a small 8192x4096 pixel ?
or a large 665536x32786 px map ( 6Gig 8 bit rgb image )
or like the LOLA data the LDEM_256 7.8 gig( 92160x46080 ) - for one file


you need to start by asking
what OS are you using ? if Windows vista or 7 then the list is a bit limited
if Linux then ....

now i think that Bjorn Jonsson and Phil Stooke use img2png and mmps most of the time ? but i might be wrong .
and those two DO work on Microsoft . ( though mmps dose need to be built on Mingw)