  For power spectrum estimation
  it's important that the pixelization
  of a CMB sky map be
  smooth and regular to high degree.
  With this criterion in mind
  the ``COBE sky cube" was defined.
  This paper has as central theme
  to further improve on this elegant scheme
  which uses a cube as projective base
  -- here an icosahedron is used in its place.
  Although the sky cube is excellent,
  a further reduction of 20 percent
  of the number of pixels can be obtained
  while the pixel distance is maintained,
  and without any degradation
  of accuracy for integration.
  The pixels are rounder in this scheme, where
  they are hexagonal rather than square,
  and the faces are small in this implementation
  which simplifies area-equalization.
  The reason distortion is lessened is that
  the faces are smaller and therefore more flat.
  To use the method, you can get
  a FORTRAN code from the Internet.
