P3D Re: Stereography of whole planets

[Paul Talbot <ptww@xxxxxxxxx>]

John Bercovitz wrote:
> 
> Don't forget that since a large object has large gravity it is
> spheroidal with very little surface variation relative to its
> size.  So if you have a stereo of a planet, you have a stereo
> of a ball with no depth resolution of the surface features.
> The surface will just appear painted on the planet.

To put this in perspective, I have read that the surface of the
Earth, relative to it's size, is smoother than the surface of a
basketball.

But I'll leave it to John B. to do the math and tell us if that
is an accurate analogy or not.  :)

Paul Talbot


------------------------------