Gnomonic Projection

gnomonic projection [nō′män·ik prə′jek·shən]

(crystallography)

A projection for displaying the poles of a crystal in which the poles are projected radially from the center of a reference sphere onto a plane tangent to the sphere.

(mapping)

A projection on a plane tangent to the surface of a sphere having the point of projection at the center of the sphere.

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Gnomonic Projection 

central projection, a map projection obtained by projecting the points of a sphere from its center to a tangent plane. The method was proposed by Thales of Miletus in the sixth century B.C. Of all the methods of projecting a sphere, only the gnomonic projection possesses the characteristic that all great circles of a sphere are represented on a plane by straight lines. In view of the considerable distortions in gnomonic projections, they are used chiefly for representing small sections of a sphere (in astronomy and navigation).