Planetary maps
Space renders
Images and mosaics
Animations
POV-Ray models
Planetary rendering tips
Experimental renders
Copyright and legal stuff
Software utilities
Astronomy
Member,
International Association of Astronomical Artists
If anyone uses the planetary maps/models available here in an interesting way I'm interested in knowing about it (I'm interested in planetary art/science as you may have guessed by now).
What's new
- 08.08.2025: Added a new a Voyager 2 map of Jupiter. The resolution of this map is somewhat lower than the resolution of the old Voyager 2 map that has been available here for years. Apart from this the new map is of considerably higher quality. The positional accuracy is significantly better and the color is more accurate. Corrected the longitude system of the aforementioned old Voyager 2 map, before the correction it was arbitrary but now System III longitude 0 is at the left/right edges of the map. Also removed some outdated stuff and changed a few ancient pages (it's nothing new that the website is long overdue for a complete overhaul however).
- 11.08.2022: The first 'official' update for a decade (!) but actually the IMG2PNG page was frequently updated during this time plus very minor modifications elsewhere. The reason for this update is my first completely new planetary map for a long time, a Voyager 1 map of Jupiter. Considering the source data properties, this may be the best planetary map I have ever made. A new map is more than just a minor update so I decided to also modify or remove a bunch of outdated stuff and more will probably be removed or modified soon (the website is long overdue for a complete overhaul however). Also added a few new renders to the Jupiter page and the Saturn page.
- 15.04.2012: A fairly big update. Completely revamped the animations page, it is now mostly a collection of links to YouTube and Vimeo where I now store my animations. The animations include a spectacular flight over Saturn's satellite Enceladus among other things. Added a spectacular new Voyager 2 mosaic of Jupiter's Great Red Spot to the Images and mosaics page. Added several new renders of Mimas and Enceladus to the Saturn page. They are created using very high resolution digital elevation models I'm working on. Added a global DEM of Io that is mostly fictional; the position of Io's major mountains should be correct though.
- 17.04.2011: Updated the Images and mosaics section a bit by replacing a Voyager 2 global view of Jupiter with a bigger and significantly improved version. I also added huge Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 mosaics of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Apparently the Voyager 1 mosaic is what's best known of all of my work here so far.
- 31.01.2010: Added two new renders of Mars. They are a big improvement over old ones. Despite this I left the old renders there for the time being because it is interesting to compare the new renders to the old ones. The old ones will be removed sometime in the future. Thanks to more powerful computers, better software, new spacecraft data and a lot of work the new ones are a huge improvement over the roughly 10 year old stuff they supersede.
- 04.01.2010: Added two new renders to the Earth/Moon page showing the Earth together with the Moon. This is the first time I have been able to get nice renders of the Moon at fairly high resolution, thanks to a recently released digital elevation model (DEM) derived from data from Japan's Kaguya spacecraft. Minor changes to the links page.