Polar pinch on texture map

[sithy]

I searched for this for several hours this morning with no success, so apologies if this has been asked before.

I am a graphic designer in the exhibits department at Marshall Space Flight center in Huntsville. We are attempting to print a large spherical moon for an exhibit, and our vendor needs files. I supplied him with a very high resolution texture map as we have with other vendors in the past, but he needs an image with the poles already pinched together. Since most of the software I deal with is for 2D applications (and the 3D software we have is lacking), I am at a loss. The sphere will eventually be printed in sixteen bands and stitched together.

Below is an illustration of what I need to accomplish. Can anyone please recommend software or Photoshop plugins to do this?



Thanks in advance.

[selden]

Sithy,

Is this for producing maps that people can personally assemble into spherical globes?

Or for large, high quality globes that will be on permanent display?

Or something in between those two extremes?

At any rate, this is a situation where you need to choose an appropriate map projection, which might not be directly derived from a simple-cylindrical projection as your current vendor seems to want.

Maps with the spikes you show are called "interrupted".

It looks like the Mac program GeoCart can do this.
See http://www.mac-maps.com/dwi_geot.htm

[ANDREA]

And here you can find MapRender3D?® Pro for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP:

http://www.digital-elevation.com/products.htm

that can convert too to "Interrupted Goode, Interrupted Mollweide".
Here you can find a demo download:

http://www.digital-elevation.com/download.htm

Hope this may help you.
Bye

Andrea