Bonestell's Lunar Panorama
(see also: Bonestell's Titan Panorama)
Click in the image, then use the mouse or arrow keys to move around.

This is an interactive version of a panorama painted by Chesley Bonestell in 1958 for the Griffith Observatory Planetarium in Los Angeles. It features the "classic" jagged peaks which were a hallmark of Bonestell's vision of the moon, and shows a landing craft based on Wernher von Braun's design (see my Virtual Reality re-creations of Bonestell's moon mission paintings).  The Apollo landings taught us that the moon is considerably different, with rounded mountains pounded to dust by millennia of meteoric impacts (see the Apollo 17 Station 5 and Station 6 panoramas).  But this is the way it "should have been".

The main light in Bonestell's painting is coming from an almost full Earth, which cannot be seen, but would be just above the frame of the picture. Some of the mountains are starting to catch the light of the rising sun, which is about to peek over the opposite horizon.

Images used with the permission of Bonestell Space Art.
Powered by 360 Degrees of Freedom.

Comments: Paul S. Hoffman
Home Page: http://www.digitalspaceart.com//