In my previous blog post, I made a very rough map of all MPC Observatory Codes (sites who are approved to submit asteroid measurements to the Minor Planet Center). Not being one to waste effort figuring something out once and forgetting about it, I made a little extra effort. What I ended up with was this:
In the process, I remembered a little bit of trigonometry, learned a little bit about geocentric vs. geodetic latitudes, and discovered some cool new capabilities in Google Maps. Speaking of which, I had to divide the world into 4 regions to upload it into Google without paying a monthly premium: North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Everyone Else. I made very basic latitude/longitude cuts to accomplish this, with only slight attention to common geographic divisions. In particular, I doubt most people would put Italy, Germany, and Turkey in "Eastern Europe," but it was quickest and easiest to do so. Apparently, the eastern French border is roughly the center of mass of asteroid-observing sites in Europe.
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The map is now updated with all observatory codes as of about Nov 1st, 2015. There is now a new layer showing telescopes in the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network, as well as 3 telescopes that collaborate with Skynet.
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