found a 3D Mars map app

Dang! Just found Adrian ('Ade') Ashford's Mars Mapper! 3D. Spherical. Albedo features wrapped to a globe! Looks like he's the guy that wrote a bunch of the apps at Sky & Telescope and the British Astronomical Association.

Maybe this is the one that I had seen some years ago? I recall an app, as noted in my Oct 6 post, that looked eerily similar to the flat map tool currently on S&T but that presented a 3D globe. This must be it.

Apparently he updated Mars Mapper for the 2020 apparition... [ed: Confirmed. The JavaScript code was updated 10 August 2020.] Fantastic! I like how you can show or hide the labels easily.

Sadly, it does not allow flipping for when one uses a mirror or star diagonal...

Kinda funny the path to this. Was reading Unk Rod's blog (article 569 on Mars) and he shared an image. I googled the title. One hit took me to a BAA version. Another hit landed me at the Stargazers Lounge where "paulastro" said he had spoken with Ade and said that he and others enjoy using the app in the past. The author then updated it.

It's available on his web site at
http://www.nightskies.net/mars/mars.html

Crumb. Could have used this 2 weeks ago. Alas. It's good to know Ade is keeping this up to date.

Enjoy the views. Mars is still great. But getting smaller every day.