The maps provided on this hub are public domain and are free to use for any personal and non-commercial purposes (see Legal Notes) - they are either created by myself, or are modified versions of maps provided online by JPL/USGS (found at David Seal's (DS) Planetary Maps site) or good hand-drawn approximations (by James Hastings-Trew) to the real thing.
Map notes
The text accompanying each map on this Hub consists of a list of useful details, as explained here:
File Format: Type and size of imagefile (16 million [true] colour JPG or 256-colour PNG), size of file. Note that you'll have to convert the JPGs to TGA format for use as an image_map in POVRay.
Map Type: All maps are 'Simple Cylindrical Projections', designed to be projected on spheres using map_type 1 [spherical] in POVray. It is important to realise that 'Simple Cylindrical Projection' does NOT mean you must map them onto spheres using 'Cylindrical Mapping' (CM) in your raytracing program - instead they must be projected using 'Spherical Mapping' (SM). If you were to use CM then you'd get a very distorted result, since it is designed for mapping images onto cylindrical objects - e.g. labels onto fizzy drink cans - and not for (roughly) spherical planets. This may seem a little confusing but the key point is that 'Simple Cylindrical' is the cartographic projection used to create the map in the first place and has nothing whatsoever to do with raytracing!
Map Origin: Where the map came from - this is how you should credit it if you use the map.
Map coverage: Area covered on planet's surface by mapped portion of image_map. Currently all the maps are complete.
Image coverage: Latitude/Longitude coverage of the map. This tells you where the 0° or 180° longitude and 90° latitude meridians are and what edge of the map they correspond to.
Radius of body and average distance from primary body are given in units of 1 km: 1 POV unit - they are provided so you can render them at realistic scales in POVray.
Notes are also included on rendering any planetary ring systems and any other important things you should bear in mind when rendering planetary scenes with this map.