Forty years of European astronomy
10 December 2002
2002 marks the 40th anniversay of the inauguration of the European Southern Observatory, Europe's leading astronomy research organisation. Earlier this year the UK became the latest country to join ESO. Helping to celebrate forty years of scientific achievement, Planetary Visions worked with ESO to produce an interactive cdrom using state-of-the-art graphics to explain the 3D structure of the Universe.
3D Universe will be published commercially next year by United Soft Media in Germany and a special English-language edition will be distributed this month by ESO.
Afghanistan mapped from Landsat
19 November 2001
Planetary Visions demonstrates a new addition to its product line with a regional mosaic of Landsat images covering
Afghanistan. 36 Landsat 7 images from spring/summer 1999-2001 were geocoded and colour balanced at a pixel size of 240 metres. Regional mosaics like this can be produced for anywhere in the world within a week or two, depending on the size of the target area and subject to the availability of archive imagery. Earlier this year, Planetary Visions produced 13 mosaics of various sizes for coverage of the World Rally Championship on the satellite tv channel Eurosport.
Astronomical graphics nominated for BAFTA award
15 January 2001
The BBC has entered its Horizon documentary on Supermassive Black Holes for this years BAFTA Television Craft Awards. The programme, transmitted in the UK in December 2000, made heavy use of computer graphics from Planetary Visions and 4:2:2. While Planetary Visions' unique graphics software provided accurate views of the complex structures of our own and other galaxies, 4:2:2 applied their special effects expertise to visualise the dramatic effects of these powerful astronomical phenomena. The combination produced what Horizon was looking for - pure science, sheer drama. Winners will be announced by BAFTA on 22nd April 2001.
Four-star review for Earth Images Collection
1 December 2000
Planetary Visions
Earth Images Collection received a four-star review in the UK edition of Macworld this month. Reviewer Vic Lennard was impressed by "a fantastic set of images" which "will satisfy anyone in need of global views". Based on the 4km version of Planetary Visions
Satellite Imagemap, the Earth Images Collection offers over a thousand ready-to-use 3D-rendered
globe images licensed for print and multimedia use.
World Atlas DVD ROM Wins in Cannes
29 February 2000
The Kosmos Weltatlas, the German language version of the
DK World Atlas DVDROM was awarded the first ever Milia d'Or for Best DVD at the annual Milia festival in Cannes, the multimedia industry's equivalent of the Palme d'Or. One of the first reference DVDs, the DK World Atlas features Planetary Visions' 1km
Satellite Imagemap overlaid on digital terrain data in an interactive flight simulator, allowing the user to fly over a detailed 3D model of the entire surface of the world.
Universe
15 November 1999
Channel 4 will be broadcasting a new series of four astronomy programmes, Universe, on Monday the 15th of November, and the three following Mondays, at 9 pm. These programmes, made by Pioneer Productions, contain a number of animations from Planetary Visions, including the
Cosmic Zoom.
DK World Atlas Millennium Edition
3 November 1999
Leading UK publishers, Dorling Kindersley, launch the Millennium Edition of their
World Atlas at the Royal Geographical Society, London, on 3rd November. The new edition combines natural-colour satellite imagemaps from Planetary Visions with traditional topographic maps to provide a unique view of the world at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Planetary Visions' Satellite Imagemap available for licensed use
1 June 1999
Planetary Visions is pleased to announce the availability of their 1km
Satellite Imagemap for licensed use by other computer graphics houses. Developed to support Planetary Visions' own in-house production of geographical computer graphics for public information projects, the Satellite Imagemap is a realistic and detailed map of the Earth's entire surface in natural colour. Based on thousands of satellite images from the 1980s and 1990s, and three man-years in the making, the Satellite Imagemap represents a stunning portrait of the Earth from space.