Sleepalot wrote:

Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:


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.

Additionally, I checked out the polar and equatorial diameters
of the Earth: the difference is less than 0.5%

Otoh, the difference in the dimensions of the image[1] is 16%,
so it's not a"natural" image.

[1] on my screen.



--
Sleepalot aa #1385