High Altitude Photographs

High altitude photographs are taken by high altitude aircraft.

Satellite Images
Whilst out of atmosphere rockets are possible, orbit is not. This makes mapping the entire earth prohibitively expensive. Pictures of the earth are taken from high altitude aircraft instead and laid together in a mosaic.

Errors
One of the biggest problems with trying to lay flat earth pictures onto a round earth simulation, is that the pieces do not align properly. This can be observed by looking at straight line features where the pictures meet.