(no subject)

[mmcirvin]

An interesting thing about Google Moon is that the craters work pretty well as a Tissot's Indicatrix; zoom out and you can tell exactly how much the Mercator projection magnifies things near the poles (without squashing the crater shapes at all).

So I suppose that means the crater distribution on the Moon, at least as depicted on this map, is not completely self-similar but has a characteristic scale. Or is it just that the crater rims themselves have a characteristic scale, so that the magnified small ones are much more rugged-looking than the giant impact basins like Mare Imbrium? The coastlines of Earth are much more self-similar, in any event, so that it's hard to tell by eyeball just how much a map projection affects relative sizes, at least on a political map.

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[designgirl.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping you don't post anonymously! Clang, clang, clang, clang. Whoops, too late!