Cylindrical projections result from projecting a spherical surface onto a cylinder. When the cylinder upon which the sphere is projected is at right angles to the poles, the cylinder and resulting projection are transverse. When the cylinder is at some other, non-orthogonal, angle with respect to the poles, the cylinder and resulting projection is oblique. When the cone is tangent to the sphere contact is along a small circle. In the secant case, the cone touches the sphere along two lines, one a great circle, the other a small circle.
Azimuthal projections result from projecting a spherical surface onto a plane.
When the plane is tangent to the sphere contact is at a single point on the surface of the Earth. In the secant case, the plane touches the sphere along a small circle if the plane does not pass through the center of the earth, when it will touch along a great circle. Miscellaneous projections include unprojected ones such as rectangular latitude and longitude grids and other examples of that do not fall into the cylindrical, conic, or azimuthal categories Table of Contents Selected Map Projections Cylindrical Projections Cylindrical Equal Area Cylindrical Equal-Area projections have straight meridians and parallels, the meridians are equally spaced, the parallels unequally spaced. There are normal, transverse, and oblique cylindrical equal-area projections. Shape and scale distortions increase near points 90 degrees from the central line.