Mars nomenclature

Bill J Gray Aug 27, 2003

The lists of planet features in Guide all came from USGS planetary
gazetteers. These are based on the official IAU nomenclature, and
that usually works out just fine. For Mars, though, the official
nomenclature doesn't match up well with the "traditional", albedo
feature based nomenclature.

To replace the former with the latter, download this file (created
mere moments ago) to your Guide directory, probably overwriting
a copy that's currently there:

http://www.projectpluto.com/planet04.gaz

Turn "Label Features" on for Mars, and you'll see the traditional
names such as Chryse, Hellas, Syrtis Major, etc. This list was
created using the ALPO Mars map. Be warned that I entered it by
hand, and won't be surprised if I flipped something north/south
somewhere along the line (if you find errors, please let me know!)

An alternative worthy of some investigation is described at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/guide-user/message/3067

The Schiaparelli nomenclature is not an exact match with current
usage, and you may see fewer "canali". But it's worth looking at.

-- Bill