from Hacker News

Map Making (1961) [video]

by geospeck on 11/2/21, 6:54 AM with 12 comments

• by rexreed on 11/2/21, 2:31 PM

  I do like these old style of videos. Straight and to the point, no influencer posing or ad breaks, and cheery music. I wonder why this style went out of fashion? It does seem old fashioned now, but I wouldn't mind this making a resurgence.

• by mikewarot on 11/2/21, 3:18 PM

  It's amazing to see the level of specialization of labor so explicitly displayed. To think that so much of that effort is now automated, and all those specialties are redundant makes a deep impression on the soul.

• by dredmorbius on 11/2/21, 9:01 PM

  For greater technical detail of mapmaking at about the same time, though of a somewhat different subject, there's Richard Furno's "The Race to Map the Moon", in two parts, covering the 1963--1969 effort to fully map the Earth's natural satellite, half of it with imagery only just obtained for the first time in the years and months immediately preceding publication.

  http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=1481

  http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=1588

  And the result, or at least an archived copy, as NatGeo's moon has gone 404: https://web.archive.org/web/20061125134203/http://www.ngmapc...

  For an earlier map (near-side only), see:

  https://www.usgs.gov/centers/astrogeology-science-center/sci...

• by dirtyid on 11/3/21, 6:29 AM

  A now deleted youtube channel with archival US government documentaries had a great series by US geological survey department on all aspects of map making / cartography that I've been trying to rediscover for years.

• by Cerium on 11/2/21, 5:06 PM

  I'm just captivated by that clip of the operator working the stereo tracer. That is the height of etch-a-sketch art, just perfection coming out of those knobs.

• by skywal_l on 11/2/21, 3:41 PM

  We should bring back lab coats and mustaches. So dignified.

• by greenie_beans on 11/2/21, 3:23 PM

  that's cool. and here i am making a map with react-leaflet