Looking for a 22" diameter globe

[Kizarvexis]

I can't find it with google. Does anyone know where to find a 22 inch diameter globe of the Earth? I have a 6 inch Moon that I want to match up. (At 55' 3+" apart too!)

Kizarvexis

[antoniseb]

You might have to make one yourself. It wouldn't be extremely difficult given the nice quality of printing that you can get your computer to do. It will take some cardboard and a form to glue the dags over.

[farmerjumperdon]

You'll need a very good high quality projection specifically made for globe making if you want it to reasonably flat over the entire surface. Either that or a printer that can handle sphere-shaped paper. Sphere-shaped paper?

[Dragon Star]

You don't need sphere shaped paper, you print it as a sphere and then cut out the sphere shape from the square paper.;)

[Kizarvexis]

You'll need a very good high quality projection specifically made for globe making if you want it to reasonably flat over the entire surface. Either that or a printer that can handle sphere-shaped paper. Sphere-shaped paper?

That's an idea. Do you know of any websites on how to make a globe? I do know that I would want a mercanter(sp?) projection. You know, the one with the map all done up in the spikes on the top and bottom. I guess I need to hit my local map store for a 22" wide map. I wonder if there are any plastic places that make 22" plastic balls for a reasonable price.

Hmm. Thanks for the idea.

Kizarvexis

[Jeff Root]

Do you know of any websites on how to make a globe?
I do know that I would want a mercanter(sp?) projection. You know,
the one with the map all done up in the spikes on the top and bottom.
I don't know what the projection you need is called, but you
definitely don't want a Mercator projection. That is about as far
from what you need as you can get, except for the part along
the equator, which would be fine.

Somewhere just within the last few months I saw a link to a map
of the Earth that could be printed on a computer printer, cut out,
and made into a paper globe. That might be exactly the thing.

At the Earth and Moon Viewer website:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/

You can find the data you need to make the printout, and there
is probably a format specifically for making globes.

I would bet anything that you can find a website that tells you
everything you need to know about globemaking.

Without knowing how to do it, myself, I'd think about applying
a thin layer of fiberglass and resin to a plastic toy ball of the
right size, and gluing the printed paper to the fiberglass, then
perhaps coating it with acrylic. Even that won't last forever,
but it should be a bit more durable than just paper directly on
a plastic ball. Lots of plastic toy balls in my grocery store!
Probably a larger selection in big toy stores.

Be sure you know exactly what kind of paper to use before you
start making printouts. If you can't get that info from a website
on globemaking, you may be able to talk directly with some people
who make paper, either as an artistic endeavor or commercially.
You may need to talk with several papermakers before you find
one who happens to have the specific knowledge you require.
The paper and ink need to be capable of surviving being soaked
with something-- not necessarily water-- so that it loosens up
and conforms to the shape of the globe, and then dries flat on
the surface without tearing, shrinking, unravelling, or smearing
the ink.

The lunule-shaped pieces of paper are called "gores". Search
for "globe paper gores" and you should find something.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[farmerjumperdon]

Very nice find Jeff.

The Mercator Conformal Projection has good shapes and are navigationally correct (a line drawn between 2 points gives true direction), but areas are off. The closer to the poles, the more exxagerated, so it has a different scale at each latitude. It is basically taking a typical flat map, rolling it into a cylinder, then stretching the upper and lower latitude scales to get the shapes correct.

Technically, no flat map can be made into a globe. Probably one of the reasons high quality globes are so expensive (relatively speaking). They must be painted onto the sphere.

That being said, some type of interrupted projection is a good practical start. That's the kind of map that has all the splits running up lines of longitude. For a globe, you'd want a split up many longitudes, as many as it takes to get the paper to lay reasonably flat. Basically, it would look like a bunch of vertically oriented cat's eyes, connected only at the equator.

I just checked mine. It is 16" in diameter and the paper segments are 15 degrees wide. I never noticed until just now, but the makers did a nice job of situating all the fine print place names so that they never cross a seam.

There are boatloads of different projections, most are valuable for certain needs; some are just neat oddities. Most good maps will indicate the projection type, which then clues you in to whether it is equal area, equi-distant, or some compromise.

Check out some cartography websites for more than you'll ever want to know about mapmaking.

[farmerjumperdon]

Evidence that darn near anything can be turned into mapping fun:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2005/10/30/MNG2NFF7KI1.DTL&o=2

I find it interesting that 69 is far and away the favorite place to jump from. I wonder if a different position carries the distinction of the most common place from which to jump and survive?

[John Kierein]

Did you ask these guys?
http://www.worldglobes.com/

[turbo-1]

This will be of absolutely no help to the OP, but it is a quite amazing globe, located just about 90 miles south of here. They are a bit pricey at this scale.

http://www.delorme.com/companyinfo/eartha.htm


www.worldglobes.com has a lot of globes, but they seem to top out at 20" - and those are VERY pricey!

[farmerjumperdon]

Very cool. But I think they meant all levels of elevation, not vegetation.

Never know though, maybe they'll be color coding for corn versus oats.