Imagine looking at this point . in this text. There is a particular triangle here; its three corners are your two eyes and that point. Now consider only one of the angles in the triangle, the angle formed as we follow lines from the left eye to the point, and then from the point to the right eye.

Now replace the point with the Earth, and extend that angle out to the geosynchronous orbit. Pick two satellites with cameras, that happen to be at the places where the angle intersects the orbit.

Tell the satellites to take simultaneous pictures of the Earth. Post the pictures as stereoscopic pairs. I want to use the one-eye-per-image trick to see a whole hemisphere of the Earth, fully illuminated, in 3D.

Please!

See, if you remember how the original whole-Earth-from-space pictures affected people, raising consciousness about how we need to care for this place where we all live...

--Well, I think the effect will work better if the world can be viewed in 3D instead of 2D.
-- Vernon, Apr 11 2008

Some computer-generated 3D images http://web.archive....rth/3d-gallery.html
This site explains how to view the images to get the 3D effect. I just want real pictures, not those fakes! [Vernon, Apr 11 2008, last modified Apr 28 2010]

Live Globe LiveGlobe
No special glasses needed. Oh, no, wait a moment, yes, they are. [DrCurry, Apr 11 2008]

DUSAT http://asri.technio...udentproj/dusat.htm
Proposal. [jutta, Apr 15 2008]

But shirley the Earth at that sort of range is smoother than a billiard (pool) ball? What would be the point of a stereo image?
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Apr 11 2008


You will see it as a SPHERE, not as a disc. Also, remember what telescopes can do to enhance a view. I'm pretty sure many geosync satellites have some telescopic capability, if they have cameras.
-- Vernon, Apr 11 2008


Didn't we do a globe with the image of the Earth projected on its surface? Don't get more 3D than that.
-- DrCurry, Apr 11 2008


Aren't there illuminated globes already? How high of resolution do you want? Why do the satellites have to be so far? Why do you want it illuminated? The Earth isn't illuminated.
-- BJS, Apr 12 2008


If it were basically live, i think that would add a dimension, as it were. I particularly wonder if the clouds could be discerned as floating above the surface,or if not those, the aurorae. The Moon would add to the spectacle.
-- nineteenthly, Apr 12 2008


"If it were basically live", yes, unless you were interested in the dark part, or the part under the clouds.
-- cblunds, Apr 15 2008


Today I realized that something I wrote in the main text ("see the whole Earth, fully illuminated") was not precisely what I meant when I wrote it. I meant that I wanted to see the whole disc of the Earth. I have edited the main text, therefore.

The Idea here is that I just don't want to see the Earth as a disc! I want to see it as being hemispherical.

Note, you can't see the Earth even as a disc if the cameras are too close (jutta, that DUSAT system appears to be too close). The cameras need to be far enough away (likely geosynchronous distance is farther away than necessary, but I did mention using telescopes).
-- Vernon, Apr 28 2010


// I just don't want to see the Earth as a disc! I want to see it as being hemispherical //

There are some psychoactive chemicals which can help you with that. Since Earth is in fact a flat disc (as anyone who has fallen off the edge would testify, had they survived), the reasons for desiring this complex delusion are not entirely clear ...
-- 8th of 7, Apr 28 2010


If it wasn't in geostationary orbit, then you could take both images with the one satelite, just at different times of the orbit/rotation of the earth.
-- mitxela, Apr 29 2010



random, halfbakery