Chesley Bonestell Art Gallery

Abstract

The Chesley Bonestell Art Gallery is a WWW based application through which one can take a virtual tour of the privately owned Bonestell collection. Aside from creating a usable application from which others can learn and enjoy the art of Chesley Bonestell, a goal for this project was to explore a wide range of technology in an effort to capture digital images of differing quality with varying retrieval speeds and file sizes.

Chesley Bonestell was an artist and illustrator who created paintings depicting astronomical scenes and space flight explorations. Bonestell's impact upon the field of space exploration was recently the focus of an article in Scientific American (May 1994). The summer of '94 has been an exciting season for space enthusiasts with the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the lunar landing and the comet collision on Jupiter. The timing is perfect to revisit the power of one man's imagination and the effects which he had upon space exploration. In doing this, perhaps a new generation of scientists will become inspired to dream of exploring other untouched locations in our solar system. Since these Bonestell paintings are housed in a private collection, they are not available for viewing by the general public. However, our goal was to share them with as many people as possible in an effort to educate them of the impact of Mr. Bonestell's work. The most effective method for sharing these paintings to others around the world is through Mosaic documents over the WWW.

Although the project is still in its developing stages, we have learned of the power and possibilities which Mosaic affords. The combination of text and detailed high resolution images is crucial to the education aspect of the application. In addition, the capability of linking documents allows the user to explore those topics which interest him/her the most. By linking to outside documents such as NASA, the possibilities for exploration and education available to students are endless.

In creating the Chesley Bonestell Art Gallery, a variety of methods for image capture were explored in order to provide a range of image qualities. On the lower end, in house photography was used to capture both print and slide medium. Then the image was captured by the computer using both print or slide scans (either a Hewlett Packard Scan Jet IIcx or Nikon Cool Scan, respectively). To produce the high quality desired, a professional photographer was retained to shoot negative transparencies of the paintings. Then, these transparencies were transferred onto the computer using a CD disk. Both professional and commercial formats were explored.

We continue to explore new forms for image capture and retrieval in the pursuit of high quality images which spark the imagination and desire for space exploration.