“The only way to see a scale model of the solar system,” Wylie Overstreet says, “is to build one.” So he and a group of friends did just that, tracing out the planets’ orbits and then filming a time-lapse video from a nearby mountaintop in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
http://www.youtube.com/zR3Igc3Rhfg
via NPR
Whenever we try to represent our 3D earth on a 2D map we necessarily introduce distortion. This tool attempts to visualize the phenomenon.
A gift given to England’s Charles II in 1660, The Klencke Atlas featured state-of-the-art maps of the continents and various European states. It was also notable for its size. Standing six feet tall and six feet wide (when opened), the volume remains 355 years later the largest atlas in the world.
The #ValleyFire burned brightly this morning. Easily detectable from space, even through cloud layer. #cawx H/T @NASA pic.twitter.com/7AO7HmyRT8
— NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) September 13, 2015