Morten-
Thank you for your insight.
There are a few issues, I understand that it's projected onto the surface of the plane. It's the right approach for what I want, but it's not set up the way I need it to be in order to achieve the desired results.
From a 3d perspective:
if you grouped the projection and the plane you would have another node the parent of the two. I need the parent to be the transformation node that's used for the panning, otherwise the map will always pan inside of the plane, which is not the effect I want.
Rotation Question:
The other problem is the rotation. if you tilt the map and then try to rotate it will clip the camera.
The approach I want is for the focal point of the camera to be always locked to the center of what ever area of the map is viewable and for the camera to rotate around the plane. This focal point should change every time you pan. The camera would never intersects the plane under this set up.. It's basically a camera aim constraint.
Please advise if everything I mentioned can be achieved or if there is a better approach.
Thank you!