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