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Posted on December 3rd, 2019

The Pléiades 1 – SPOT 6/7 Stadium of the Month – Finneran Pavilion

Last month we checked out the site of a key SEC college football match up, and for this Pléiades 1 – SPOT 6/7 Stadium of the Month we stick with a college sports theme, this time moving to the East Coast with a look at a newly renovated basketball arena, Finneran Pavilion.


A 50-cm color image of Finneran Pavilion in Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA collected on April 1, 2019 by Pléiades 1A; and then a 1.5-m SPOT 7 image of the same stadium collected on October 19, 2017. These images have custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. PLEIADES © CNES 2019, Distribution Airbus DS. SPOT © Airbus DS 2019.

About the Venue: Finneran Pavilion is located on the east side of the Villanova University campus in Villanova, Pennsylvania about 10 miles (17 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia. Originally opened in 1986 as John Eleuthère du Pont Pavilion for a cost of $15 million (du Pont donated $5 million of this total), the name was changed to just The Pavilion in 1997 when the wealthy namesake was convicted of murdering an Olympic wrestler. In 2016, a $65 million renovation of The Pavilion was announced and after a $22.6 million donation by alumni William B. Finneran, the arena’s name was changed to Finneran Pavilion when it re-opened in 2018 for a men’s basketball victory over Morgan State. While the renovation did not change Finneran’s seating capacity from 6,501, nearly everything else was upgraded including an improved audio-visual experience, new concession stands and a history-laden entry promenade.

Fun Factoids: (1) In the past ten years, the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament has been won eight times by four teams, twice each – including the Villanova Wildcats in 2016 and 2018. The Men’s team has a 0.825 winning percentage at Finneran including 46 straight wins from 2007 to 2011 and 48 straight from 2013 to 2017. (2) The stated capacity of Finneran is 6,501 with the extra seat dubbed the Lone Chair in memory of our veterans who lost their lives in service of our country. (3) Finneran Pavilion is not just home to the Villanova Men’s and Women’s basketball teams, it has also hosted famous musicians such as 50 Cent in 2006, Drake in 2011 and Nicki Minaj in 2013.

The Pléiades 1 High-Resolution Satellite Constellation

The Pléiades 1 constellation (or at least part of it!) has been in orbit since December 2011 and if you have not had a chance to check out any sample imagery, take a few moments and have a look at the gallery on our website. If you work with high-resolution imagery, you should consider Pléiades 1 for your next geospatial project.

A variety of Pléiades 1 products are available from both a growing archive and as a new collection, including 50-centimeter (cm) pansharpened imagery and 50-cm panchromatic – 2-meter (m) 4-band multispectral bundles. We are happy to discuss the technical specifications, pricing and tasking options available with this satellite constellation.

The SPOT Medium-Resolution Satellite Constellation

The SPOT medium-resolution constellation consist of seven satellites launched from 1986 to 2014 with the most recent additions, SPOT 6 and SPOT 7, launching in 2012 and 2014 respectively. SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 are twin satellites offering 1.5-m panchromatic and 6-m 4-band multispectral data with a massive footprint at 60-kilometers (km) wide. For projects requiring recent archive coverage or rapid new collections of medium-resolution data, SPOT 6/7 should be one of your top imagery sources!

More sample images and technical information about Pléiades 1A and 1B can be found on our website here; while the same can be found here for the SPOT constellation and specifically about SPOT 6/7.

The Apollo Mapping sales team can answer any questions you might have about Pléiades 1 and/or any of the SPOT satellites. We can be reached at (303) 993-3863 or sales@apollomapping.com.

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