Author Topic: Cartography in the Spare Bedroom  (Read 4145 times)

librarian

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Cartography in the Spare Bedroom
« on: 18 December, 2018, 03:04:27 pm »
This was one of those projects that seemed like a good idea when I started it.  You see, our spare bedroom needed painting.  And it just so happened the room is pretty much square, with two angled ceilings.  Almost quite half-sphere shaped, if one is inclined to look at it that way.  And previously I had ambitions to paint a world map on a big wall once we owned our own house.  As good ideas flow, 2+2 -> 10, yes?

So let me present, a little bit of Swavesey Hemisphere:


You might note at this point that the map is not immediately recognisable.  Why is that, for it is projected (moderately carefully) onto the hemisphere?  You see, the concept is that we are looking at the sphere but happen to be inside it, rather than outside.  So in the centre of the ceiling is Swavesey - directly overhead inbetween the two ceiling lights:



And the rest of the world is painted on the whole of the ceiling & walls in the direction it is in reality.  So Africa is to the South of us.  Asia is to the East of us, and is thus painted on the part of the room to the East of Swavesey.  You are looking at a half a globe, but looking from the inside rather than the outside.  The boundary of the map at floor level is those bits of the world at 90 degrees from us here in Swavesey.  A sort of equator at 10,000km from us.  Only half of the real equator is on this map (though unmarked).

For a slightly more wide-field picture, I took this one as a composite after finishing the old world.  Couple of years ago.  So the arctic isn't done yet in this one:


The arctic now looks more like below.  Year-round ice cover in solid white, summer ice in pretend icebergs.  Based on maxima and minima from 2015, when I was sketching out that bit.  North pole labelled, again in the correct direction for the actual North pole, and proportionate distance from us:



Minimal key included below.  My decision to do the height-contouring was partly responsible for the whole damn project taking, um, five years or so to do in spare time.  But I kind of liked the effect once I'd got started, so it seemed a shame to stop.



Obligatory mildly confusing compass rose at 0N, 0W: