Downing Planetarium - What's New

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MURALS

Murals in the Lobby (8/1/02)

A renowned artist Lynette Cook has spent the entire month of July using only ordinary paint brushes and an airbrush and produced two mural masterpieces. On the south side of the lobby are Gliese 876 system and other objects such as the Horsehead Nebula and the Orion Nebula. The north side (theater side) has the nine planets of our solar system.

Click the image on the left to see the process of painting.

Lynette Cook is well known for her astronomical and cosmological illustrations. If you have been following the recent discoveries of extrasolar planetary systems, you may very well have encountered some of her art works. One of them, 55 Cancri system - whose discovery was just announced a month ago - appears below.

Click on the images below to see what each object is.

Front wall: Gliese 876 system and various objects

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Fresno Bee