EVS-Islands

The above map shows some of my completed island mapping projects. Each icon contains the name of the primary island associated with the project and a link to the post. Once all of my projects are posted, the map will be covered with icons. To productively use the map, zoom into a region of interest. Then select an icon.

Each of my maps is constructed of numerous layers of information. All of the layers are vector files. I will make these files available upon request. You are free to use them with certain restrictions - 1) Don't sell them. You can use them on research projects, post them to your website or things of that nature. If you aren't sure about the use of my maps, drop me a line and we can discuss your idea. 2) Give me credit when you use my vectors or images of my maps. Credit them to Peter Minton @ EVS-Islands

If I have the island vector file(s) and based upon your need, I will make them available. Images of my maps are yours to download and use, with the above restrictions applicable. Enjoy!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Thoughts - Wow! Who Would've Thunk it!

On February 21, 2008, while reading my science RSS feeds, I came across an article about some stunning radar images of methane seas located on Titan. I followed the links and came across the initial image showing strips of the surface of the northern polar region of Titan. And sure enough, there was something that looked like a sea. And best of all, the image of the sea showed what looked to be islands. "Cool, islands!", I said.

Titan Unnamed Methane Sea Base Image PIA10008

Curious mapper that I am, I downloaded the image, georectified it by deciding that 180° would be south and 0° would be north, and digitized a cluster of islands.

Titan Island Group - Cassini Image PIA 100008 (1:1,000,000)

Due to the interest generated by my first map, I digitized the shoreline and islands of the entire unnamed methane sea, made my map and posted it. And then the fun started.

Titan's Unnamed Methane Sea

Over the past month the above map has been viewed on my site alone in excess of 1,500 times. It was picked up and posted to the following sites: Centauri Dreams, Strange Maps, Io9 Unmanned Spaceflight and a few Livejournal posts out of Russia. This map of extraterrestrial islands in a methane sea has generated lots of new traffic to EVS Islands. Hopefully, they will find the world of terrestrial islands of interest.

Enjoy!

Labels: methane sea, Titan

Posted by Mr Minton at 4/01/2008 08:19:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Titan's Unnamed Methane Sea - With Fixed Lat / Lon

Titan's Unnamed Methane Sea

Got to go to my grandson's baseball game. Will explain this when I get back. The map's lat/lon is corrected based upon feedback.

Okay, I'm back. The game was fun, I shopped for vinyl records and am ripping a copy of the soundtrack for the movie The Commitments (great soul music). Now I can explain my fixed map. Jason Perry, of the Cassini Imaging Team and a Titan map maker posted the following comment to my original post explaining lat/lon on this extraterrestrial body:

O° West is straight down. For worlds like Titan, longitude is defined as degrees west from the average Sub-Saturn point. In the map you show, 0° West is straight down, and longitude increases to 360 W in the clockwise direction. Keep in mind that the sea you mapped is the smaller of the two main northern seas. The one to the west, seen in the radar image in two places: the northern part of the sea with the large island in the middle, and part of the middle of the sea to the lower right in PIA10008 as posted here.

As a result, I adjusted the longitudes by adding 180° to each of my original longitudinal lines.

Enjoy!

Labels: methane sea, Titan

Posted by Mr Minton at 3/29/2008 04:15:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Titan's Unnamed Methane Sea

Titan's Unnamed Methane Sea with Lat-Lon Grid (1-750,000)

Titan's Unnamed Methane Sea without Lat-Lon Grid (1-750,000)

My Titan Island Post generated lots of interest. To finish it off, I went ahead and digitized the shoreline of the unnamed methane sea my previous post's islands are located in. It is one of the largest bodies of liquid known to exist on this moon of Saturn. This body of liquid methane, ethane and nitrogen is about the size of Lake Superior.

Titan Unnamed Methane Sea Base Image PIA10008

Now for my question - Where is 0° longitude on this base image? Are my coordinates correct? I took the original image and georectified it by designating the longitude at the lower center as 0°. I moved clockwise identifying 90°W, 180°W and 90°E. The first latitude below 90°N, I identified as 80°N. Is this sequence correct? If anyone actually knows the proper orientation of the base image, let me know so I can properly georectify my map? Until I find out differently, the above coordinates associated with my map will have to do.

Enjoy!

P.S. - The following is my Titan's Unnamed Methane Sea map with corrected longitudes, thanks to Jason Perry, a Titan mapper.

Titan's Unnamed Methane Sea With Corrected Longitudes

Labels: extraterrestrial island, Global Mapper, Marplot, methane sea, Saturn, Titan

Posted by Mr Minton at 2/24/2008 01:26:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post