About the Azimuthal Equidistant Projection
The Azimuthal Equidistant projection is also known as the Postel; and the Zenithal Equidistant.
This is another ancient azimuthal projection and was used on many early star maps. The oldest surviving example is Conrad of Dyffenbach's star map of 1426. During the 16th century, it was used by Giovanni Vespucci for maps of the southern hemisphere, and by Mercator for maps of the polar regions.
This projection is neither conformal nor equal area, however distance and direction are accurate from the center. ESRI only recommend the use of this projection within 30° of the center where distortion is limited to 4.7% along the parallels.
See our interactive Azimuthal Equidistant Projection Northern Hemisphere map.