Tuesday 9 October 2012

Getting the final tweaks to the plan map so that it still looks right on a globe is tricky. This is the result of experimenting with distorted proportions, projecting onto a globe and finding an image that doesn't look too strange. Luckily, those nice people at NASA Goddard have some great free software that does this in a few seconds, so it's really easy to do.


Here are some orthographic projections that seem to work well. Because the distortion increases at the edges, changing the viewpoint changes the shape of the continents. This is starting to work like real mapping now. We can assume that our global map is more or less complete and we can now give it measurements.

 

Seen on a globe, the continents of Titan look strange. Don't worry, this is normal.


 There's a big ocean out there. The Unknown Continent might be larger than supposed.


Allansia and the Old World are viewed from above the equator. The northern coastline will appear wider after the planet has been given an equatorial bulge. Khul is viewed from below the equator. The southern coastline will appear wider after the globe has been given an equatorial bulge.






Titan's North Pole. The ice cap shown here is probably a mountainous region buried under deep ice. As the seasons change, the polar seas will freeze and melt, creating a climate much like Earth's Arctic region.




Unlike Earth's Antarctic regions, the lands closest to Titan's South Pole are habitable. I imagine the Unknown Continent might have a landscape and climate similar to those of Iceland.


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