As well as adorning the walls of galleries, conference rooms and homes, space art has a couple of important roles: visualising far-off places where neither humans nor spacecraft can easily go (such as the alien surface of exoplanets or the depths of distant galaxies) and illustrating space programs and new technology both real or conceptual. This book examines the history and techniques of space art with the help of hundreds of original colour images from a myriad of artists.

Fittingly, the foreword to the book was written by Apollo 12 astronaut, Alan Bean, who is himself an accomplished painter and fellow of the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA). There are a few examples of his work throughout the book including “That’s How it Felt” and “Is Anyone Out There?” together with some from other astronaut artists like Alexei Leonov whose excellent “Vokshod 2” is included in the collection.

Part I of the book follows the history of art and astronomy from ancient times, through the Industrial Revolution, and into the 20th-century Space Age. This presents art together with sky charts, maps and diagrams as mankind wrestles to understand and illustrate the mysteries of the cosmos throughout the ages. With greater understanding comes more questions and a more diverse range of things for space artists to visualise.

It is interesting to see how extremely talented and knowledgeable astronomical artists can sometimes get things wrong, painting something at the limit of our understanding which is later proven to be false. American architectural designer, Chesley Bonestell, who became a Hollywood special effects matte painter in 1938 and an influential astronomical artist, drew wonderful and convincing lunar landscapes with craggy mountains. The book explains his disappointment when photographs from the actual Apollo lunar landings showed softly rolling lunar hills instead of his romanticised mountainous landscapes!

The chapter “The Founding of a Guild” follows the formation and development of the IAAA which was formally registered in 1986 and has grown from a small group of devotees to have several hundred members worldwide. It describes their astronomical art workshops where members visited specially selected locations to inspire space paintings of analogous locations on other planets or moons. There are numerous examples including the exoplanet landscape “Rigel Kentaurus Canyon” by Marilynn Flynn which is based on her visit to Golden Canyon in Death Valley. The illustrated group paintings produced after the workshops show the diverse range of painting styles and different ways the artists can interpret the subject.

Part II of the book delves into the different techniques and subgenres of space art. This begins with classical naturalistic paintings in the chapter “Rocks & Balls” which has some wonderfully convincing interpretations of landscapes on the surface of other planets and moons such as Mars, Io, Triton and a “Super Earth” exoplanet. Particularly intriguing are Walt Myer’s image of Saturn seen through the mouth of an icy cave on Iapetus and Don Dixon’s image of the “Enke gap” in Saturn’s rings.

Space art meets rocket science head-on in the next chapter which illustrates the development of space hardware technology. It begins with an old engraving showing the amusing clutter inside the projectile from Jules Verne’s “From Earth to the Moon” with everything a 19th Century gentleman could need for his adventure including hunting rifles, a spade, a pickaxe and room for his loyal dog! Most of the more recent pictures of hardware in this section are particularly convincing and realistic, produced to illustrate either real missions or serious potential future ones. In stark contrast, the following chapter showcases the colourful and exciting visions of impressionist, expressionist, abstract and surreal artists. These capture both the eye and the imagination and would grace any upmarket office boardroom. One famous and instantly recognisable example is Vincent Van Gogh’s swirly-stroke painting “Starry Night”.

This beautifully illustrated and comprehensive space art history tour-de-force finishes with sections on digital computer-generated art, which showcases many photo-realistic renderings, and physical sculptures of objects such as an orrery, luminaires, ornaments and models of spacecraft. Clocking in at over 300 pages, having made your way through this authoritative book you will feel as though you have “seen it all” and become an expert on space art past, present and possibly even the future!