Sphere appears to elongate further away I get

My sphere elongates as I move around in my game, and I’m not sure why this is happening. My best guess is that it has something to do with either my camera view or the material/shader settings I have set on the sphere representing the planet in the picture below:

My planet has a PNG texture with the Diffuse shader applied to it. No special settings. It is a perfect sphere.

Here it is again as I get closer to the object. Notice how now it appears to be a perfect sphere.

17916-capture.png

I have a perspective camera that follows my player object (the ship in the picture) around the screen. The perspective camera looks straight down on the ship. That is why I assume it has something to do with perspective. I plan on altering the camera angle at some point in the future to not be looking straight down, but for now, it looks straight down.

Question Revisited

So what I’m asking here is why is the planet seemingly elongated when I have moved far away from it. Is this the perspective camera? Should I be using an orthogonal view instead? Does it have to do with the shaders? Do I need to somehow map my texture to the sphere differently?

Note This is my first question on the site, so if I’ve left out crucial information, please ask for it and I will provide. Thanks.

Yes, that is an effect from the perspective of the camera. You could try lowering the field of view and place the camera further away, or you could as you suggested use an Orthogonal view instead (depending on your game this may not be ideal). But it has at least nothing to do with the shader or the texture mapping.