On Feb. 3, Sheena McFarland did a nice blog on a NASA JPL spinoff product from the Mars Rovers - the Gigapan mount that sells for about $375. Basically, you snap in your cheap digital camera in the mount, ramp up the magnification to maximum, and the mount takes care of taking a few hundred minipics. Separate software stiches everything together. http://blogs.sltrib.com/rss/frontier.xml Her story was based on this NASA press release. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/02feb_gigapan.htm?list1294036 A demonstration photo to the types of pans you can take with the mount are shown in this image of Obama's inaugural speech. http://gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=15374 If you click on the proceeding link, be warned of the following. Looking at the picture can be addictive and you may waste a good portion of your afternoon on it. Second, it takes a while to load because users can mark snapshots out of the photo. About 1400 people have marked snapshots. When you click on a snapshot, the main image will zoom on the marked location. If I'm on anyone's Christmas list here, daddy knows what he wants for Christmas 09. Clear Skies - Kurt P.S. You long-eared Republicans on the list might want to zoom in framing Obama on the right side of the frame and Bush and Cheney on the left side. Pretty much says it all. -:)