Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

In message , Joe Egginton
writes
Sleepalot wrote:
Joe Egginton wrote:

Sleepalot wrote:
"peter clarke" wrote:


http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/...2&fd=25&fy=200
8&sm=02&sd=25&sy=2007

There seems to be something seriously wrong with
the planet on those images - or is it just me?



You are looking onto the top of the planet, so that the artic is in
the centre of the photo.
Yes, so how come the image is oblate? Shouldn't it be circular?


It isn't circular because the Earth is an oblate spheroid, not a sphere.

The oblateness wouldn't show up on a polar view, and anyway is too small
to be obvious to the naked eye.

My first suspicion is that the image is circular, and the apparent
oblateness is an optical illusion, possibly resulting from the dark
areas at the top and bottom.

After examination of the image in an image editor I find that the
vertical and horizontal diameters of the image of the earth is the same
to within a pixel or two. Suspicion confirmed.

My method was rather more direct: I held a rule(r) to the screen.
height 118mm, width 140mm.


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Sleepalot aa #1385