Once you have the MapGuide plug-in installed, are viewing the map, and have zoomed in to a a scale of 1:75,000,000 or closer, you will see an active map layer called "Degree Confluences". This layer shows all the indexed confluences, color coded to indicate visited, attempted or not visited. Follow the link at the top of the map to MapGuide Tips and Help for help with panning, zooming and many other map operations.
If you move the cursor over a confluence (or most any other map object) you will see a yellow "map tip" that gives more information about the map feature including its coordinates and other key information,.
When the cursor is over a confluence, it also turns to a "pointing hand" indicating that it is linked to more information, in this case the corresponding confluence or area page on the Degree Confluence Project web site. Double-click on a confluence to view the page.
After zooming in further, you will see another layer called "Degree Confluences – All" in the legend on the left. This layer is off by default. Check the box to turn it on. As you might imagine, this layer shows every possible confluence. It uses a solid black dot for official confluences and a black ring for unofficial confluences. If you hold the cursor over these confluences you see information about them in the yellow map tip. (With the "ring" symbol, the cursor must touch the ring itself and not the center.) Unlike the color-coded indexed confluences, the confluences in the "Degree Confluences – All" layer are not hot-linked to additional web pages.
The "Degree Confluences – All" layer may inspire some debate about just what is an official confluence and whether particular confluences really are on land, water or ice cap as indicated. Short of visiting the confluences, there may not really be any way to know for sure. The countries and other map features are from freely available sources and are not particularly accurate. Of course, the confluence points are perfectly accurate by definition!
Map tip information is different for the "Degree Confluences" layer and the "Degree Confluences – All" layer. If both layers are on at the same time you will see the indexed (color coded) confluences as a smaller colored dots on top of larger black dots (or rings) for the "All" layer. If you are careful moving the mouse, you can view either of the map tips for the confluence. Or, to see the underlying map tips more easily on the "All" layer, simply turn off the "Degree Confluences" layer on top.
This world map uses the popular Miller Cylindrical projection to display the spherical earth on a flat map. The projection introduces rather extreme distortion of land shapes and sizes, which may make you wonder what the poles problem is really all about! In short, the confluences really are closer together near the poles despite their apparent distance on the map.