I have also been fascinated by the 360 QTVR Panoramas done by Peter Murphy:

http://www.mediavr.com/blog/

some at night with people. I haven't been able to determine how he does these. I don't know if you have seen these?

Any idea on what techniques he uses (yes I have asked outright with no response) -- equipment (lens, tripod jigs or ..?), software?

What equipment do you use? Do you use a nodal correction setup on your tripod? What lens(es)?

(BTW I remember meeting you -- sometime in the early/mid 80's -- I think you were working on a Pascal compiler/interpreter for the (Ontario) ICON computer?)