Making globes of the planets

You can print them out, cut them out, and bend them into globes.
(Mostly diameters of about 8cm and 16cm.)
I suggest you first try Planetary Icosahedrons, which are easier to make.

part 1 , 2 , 3.	Mercury From Maps of the Solar System - Mercury. Image 0/Mercury 580k tif. Image smaller version 0/Mercury 135k jpg.
an example page (1 of 6) PDF version 4MB (somewhat lossy) TIFF version 8MB	Mercury High resolution globe - 300 bpi, ~30 cm diameter (hemisphere) From MARINER 10 MERCURY Shaded Relief Map. Image TIFF format Simp Cyl Proj; 10 Mbytes.
	Venus Visually boring.
part 1 , 2 , 3.	Earth - no clouds From Earth images. Image AVHRR Pathfinder 2048x1024 (192k). Image smaller version 512x256 (18k). Brightened slightly. Perhaps not enough.
part 1 , 2 , 3.	Earth's Moon - near IR albedo From USGS CLEMENTINE. Image Clementine global albedo map of the Moon - 10 km/pixel - 204 kb [near IR].
part 1 , 2 , 3.	Earth's Moon - mumble? From Maps of the Solar System - Earth-Moon System. Image 1/Moon 1.2M tif. Image smaller version 1/Moon 330k jpg.
part 1 , 2 , 3.	Mars - no clouds From NASA Planetary Data System MAP-A-PLANET. Image MAP-A-PLANET output, generated by [Mars Advanced mars_viking_merged SIMPLE_CYLINDRICAL STRETCH=NONE 5pix/deg Lat 180 Log 360]. Image smaller version.
part 1 , 2 , 3.	Jupiter From Maps of the Solar System - Jupiter and a "C. Thomas' Planetary Maps" webpage (now gone?). Image (2nd) Jupiter 2.4M tif. Image smaller version (2nd) Jupiter 115k jpg. But compare color with CICLOPS. [Oops. Looks like CICLOPS has it right. I'll replace this at some point.]
part 1 , 2 , 3.	Saturn From Planetary Map's A map of Saturn. Image saturn.jpg. Image smaller version saturn_m.jpg.
	Neptune Visually somewhat boring. Maps of the Solar System - Neptune has an interesting fictional image, but I've been unable to quickly determine its accuracy.
	Uranus Visually boring. (Blue-green ball)

the software

Here is an alternative script, make_gores.pl. It is much much faster, portable perl, and doesn't require gimp. It takes a raw PPM format input file, and generates a similar output file. Motivated by a reader's interest and effort -- thanks.

Links

Thanks to the creators of the planetary cylindrical-projection maps. All I've done is slightly massage them. Thanks also to the reader who motivated this page, to Furuti's Map Projection Pages which showed what needed to be done, and to GIMP which did it.

Notes

[Re creating a high-resolution large mars globe...]
"I printed and measured one Mars gore as it would be stuck onto a regular REPLOGLE (earth) globe, and it fits quite nicely. Next thing is to print half-gores on AVERY full sheet size labels. For a 12 inch globe, a half gore just fits a regular 8 1/2 x 11 sheet nicely. Actually, using a feature in Photoshop-7, I can create arrange 3 half-gores, one inverted, for a 12 inch globe, so little of the sticker sheet is wasted. Same can be done with any photo package with cut & paste."

"I have two REPLOGLE globes - 12 inch and 16 inch. They are made of compressed cardboard, with pastic coated sticker gores. The gores on the 12 inch are 15 degrees of longitude wide, while the gore stickers on the 16 inch globe are 30 degrees wide. Looking very closely, I also see that REPLOGLE cut the gores, 1/4 of the gore width through on each side, at just 2 places, at about (14 and 28 degrees Latitudes) on the 12 inch model, but at 3 places, at about (14, 28, 44 degrees Latitudes) on the 16 inch model. These cuts allow the gore stickers to lay flatter on the globe surface during construction. They are just the right depth and at the right height up the gore, to permit the cuts to seemlessly mesh to the sphere."

Notes:
  The high-resolution Mercury hemisphere's right side is at 10 deg West longitude,
    so the gores are not lined up with the n x 15 deg longitude lines.
    I've another version which is, if anyone cares.

Doables:
  Mention script-fu version.  Lack of perl-fu for windows.
  Incorporate reader's script-fu extentions into alternate script.
  Goreify visually more accurate CICLOPS's Jupiter.
  Color globe generator, and placeholders for other planets.
  Is "C. Thomas' Planetary Maps" gone for good?
  Data
   Higher res earth(PM4x2), mars(gen), merc(shade_simp.tif), etc.
   Vhighres mars, moon, calist, europ, from MAP-A.  30cm/12in globes. 12/24 g?
   Gore 8's? for easier construction
   Planetary moons.  pretty Io.
   Earth paleo.  clouds.  night.
   Saturn's rings.
   Neptune, Uranus, Venus.
   Venus elevation map, color ball, IR.
   Uranus color ball.
   Neptune Voy img.  Check Davis background.
   Make Jupiter from CICLOPS.
   Better Merc src? fullplanet
   Who has Mars' color right, MAP-A-PLANET or Maps of the Solar System?
    Make 2nd Mars from MotSS.
   I don't trust jup0vtt2's poles.
  Software
   Layout - equitorial alignment mark, pole caps, core hoops, edge cut strips.
   Match output size/resolution to target print size, and printer res (n x 100dpi). 
   Size specific (PDF) for various objects (tennis ball, etc).
   Support mercator input.  Partial lat/lon coverage.
   Construction tips.
   Line rather than point sampling.  RGBA, GRAY* capable.
   Don't set resolution in plug-in?  Use metric size.(Crntly 10in).
   Do faster PDL? version of plug-in.
   flower layout - get from usgs or write

History:
  2003-Dec-15  Fixed reader comments.  New version of alternative script.
  2003-Dec-14  Added a fast alternative script, and a reader's comments.
  2002-Jun-23  Added `USGS Astrogeology: Maps and Globes'.
  2002-Feb-20  Modified Mercury PDF to avoid clipped edges.
  2002-Feb-20  Added high-resolution Mercury.  For a reader.
  2001-Dec-06  Added true-color references from pds.jpl.  Thanks to a reader!
  2001-Nov-16  Online.