Ron Miller (1) (1947–)

Chesley Bonestell (1 January 1888 - 11 June 1986) was widely hailed as perhaps the foremost astronomical artist of the Twentieth Century. His paintings inspired a generation to think about spaceflight and astronomy; many he inspired went on to work in those fields. Others who saw his paintings, either as artworks or illustrating books or magazine articles, followed their interests into the hobbies of astronomy or science fiction. Perhaps a greater number, in the USA at least, saw the show more paintings and read the articles they illustrated, and decided that this was the sort of thing their tax dollars ought to go towards. A large part of the Zeitgeist of the 1960s can be traced directly back to Bonestell's work.

Yet there was much more to the man than his space paintings. Had he never chosen to illustrate other worlds, he would have had a distinguished career in architecture. As a young man, he experienced directly the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; although something of a dissolute youth, he did display a talent for art which he persisted with against parental disapproval. It was that talent which got him into the offices of architects who worked on some of the major civic and commercial buildings put up during San Francisco's reconstruction. His career took off from there, and he illustrated many of the great buildings of the Art Deco age across the nation. Although not an architect himself, he contributed to the exterior design of some of these buildings (the eagle gargoyles on New York's Chrysler Building were his, for example, as was the visual design of the towers of the Golden Gate bridge). He was capable of turning his artistic talents to any suitable subject - in this case, 'suitable' generally meant 'remunerative'. He became involved with Hollywood, producing mattes and backgrounds for some of Warner Bros. most memorable films, such as Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons and later, Destination Moon.

Initially, astronomy was merely a hobby; but Bonestell's habit of sending work to magazines on spec, together with his reputation, soon got his work accepted and commissions started coming his way. Perhaps the most influential work he did in terms of space art was the illustrations for the 1951 series in Collier's Magazine of articles by Wernher von Braun, setting out his vision of the future of spaceflight. These paintings were probably highly influential in driving thinking amongst the public, the military and politicians about the necessity of an active space programme. He also provided many covers for the science fiction magazines, although he professed no love for the genre; yet many of his illustrations were entirely in tune with the science fictional mindset of the advancement of humankind through technological and scientific progress.

Bonestell's illustrations of the surface of the Moon were iconic. Unfortunately, they were also wrong. Bonestell assumed that the mountains of the Moon would be sharp-edged and jagged, partly from extensive telescopic observation of the Moon being best done when the Sun is at a low angle, casting sharp and exaggerated shadows. But in a way, that doesn't matter; he shows us the Moon as perhaps it ought to have been, and the hold of his images on the public imagination remains. His paintings came up short in other scientific matters; into the 1960s, he was still depicting canals on Mars or the surface of Jupiter. And we now know that another of his most famous paintings, Saturn as seen from Titan, just would not be possible, as we now know that Titan's atmosphere is opaque.

But this is irrelevant. His mastery of his subjects, his meticulous approach to perspective and the source of light, and his complete enthusiasm for his work, shines through. And the public reacted. Bonestell's work helped define an era.

This sumptuous book, by artist Ron Miller and genuine rocket scientist Frederick Durant, contains a full biography of Bonestell and a gallery of more than 130 pages of reproductions of his paintings and drawings. It establishes Chesley Bonestell as a key figure in twentieth century American art. show less

The Grand Tour is one of my favourite books on astronomy. It's an introduction to our solar system, and is somewhat unconventional as it does not list the planets in order of their distance from the Sun, but rather in order of size, starting with Jupiter. This arrangement reveals the solar system to be far more complex and interesting than the eight or nine planets we all learned in elementary school - and makes obvious the fact that the moons Ganymede and Titan are both larger than the show more planet Mercury, something that surprised me a bit! While the larger planets and satellites are the most interesting and diverse, even the smaller objects, which may at first glance appear to be little more than cratered rocks, can tell us much about the history of our solar system and our place in it. Miller and Hartmann's imaginative illustrations really make this book stand out, as they help to give each planet and satellite a personality and help the reader imagine what it would be like to walk on the surface of another world. I highly recommend this book, especially for a young person interested in astronomy or for anyone who doesn't want a book that is too technical or intimidating. show less

Spaceships: An Illustrated History of the Real and the Imagined by Ron Miller is an illustrated history book of space travel. The author touches on real, as well as fictional spaceships.

This is a beautiful coffee table book with inspiring images and interesting essays about space travel and its history. The book features forewords by Lance Bush, president & CEO of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, and Tom Crouch, senior curator, Aeronautics Department Smithsonian National show more Air and Space Museum (my all time favorite museum).

I tremendously enjoyed flipping through the book, taking in all the wonderful pictures and stopping in places I found fascinating to read a bit more about them. I appreciated that Mr. Miller took the time to comment how science-fiction has influenced science fact. Besides scientists and enthusiasts I never see that mention, but it is important. Many people believe that reading novels is a waste of time, but here is proof that you need imagination to progress forward in both industry and society.
The Spartans found that out the hard way, killing all the weak babies who would have been the poets and scientists, they found themselves several millenniums behind the rest of Greece.

This wonderful, hard cover coffee table book, is a visual trip through space and time of spaceship, rockets and their influence on pop-culture and art.

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Ron Miller’s new book is an examination of a subject that has fascinated humankind seemingly from the beginning of the world. Intended for a Young Adult audience, he starts by covering a variety of End of World (EOW) scenarios from mythology, religion and popular culture.
2012 is covered from both the Mayan perspective and the Niburu contingent. Also covered are various pseudoscientific theories such as planetary alignment and gravity shifts. In each of these cases, Miller is very show more straightforward and non-judgmental. He presents the theories and then presents the science behind why they are highly improbable, if not impossible. From the more sober side of EOW scenarios, he presents more plausible, if not always more probable causes of the destruction of the Earth. These range from the astronomic: solar flares, asteroids and the like, to human activity. Pollution, global warming and nuclear war all make the list of possible culprits. Miller also makes a point of mentioning that it may not be the Earth itself that is destroyed, but the human species.
To close out the book, he looks at some scenarios that would actually destroy the planet, namely collision with some very large space object, whether matter (asteroid) or non-matter (black hole) or the eventual death of the sun. After reading the book, one can breathe much easier. After all, Miller notes that “most fact-based world-ending disasters are thousands, millions and even billions of years in the future.”
This is a fun book that presents the different circumstances that might lead to the end of the world alongside solid scientific explanations of the probability for each. Miller also includes a comprehensive glossary as well as an extensive list of further reading (both non-fiction and fiction) as well as websites and movies to peruse, including a lot of ecological information. Teens, the intended audience, will definitely enjoy the book, but it is smart enough to cross over onto some adult shelves as well. show less