When the Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon in 1969，millions of people were rather sad.The person to blame for this was an artist named Chesley Bonestell.For many years，Bonestell had been creating beautifully detailed paintings of the Moon and the planets.Viewers of his artwork were unhappy because the real Moon did not look like Bonestell’s pictures of it.
As a space artist，Bonestell tried to make his drawings look exciting and as true as the Moon is.But in the 1940s and 1950s，no one had ever seen another planet up close.Yet Bonestell’s paintings looked so real that some people thought they were photographs.
As a young man Bonestell studied architecture—the art and science of designing and making buildings.In 1938 Bonestell became a special effects artist in Hollywood.It was here that he learned he could improve his paintings by following the methods used in the movies.
In 1944，a popular magazine published a series of Bonestell’s paintings of the planet Saturn.He drew Saturn as if it were seen by someone standing on each
of the planet’s moons.The results were dazzling(耀眼的)．Within a few years，Bonestell’s artwork appeared regularly in magazines and books on astronomy and space flight.
Many of Bonestell’s artworks had been right all along.But the biggest surprise was the Moon.Someone asked Bonestell what he was thinking when he saw the first pictures from the Moon.“I thought how wrong I was！” he said.“My mountains were sharp，and they aren’t on the Moon.”
But he shouldn’t have felt bad.No space artist had ever before taken so many people to so many faraway worlds.In the years just before the first manned space flights，Bonestell’s artworks prepared people for the amazing space adventure to come.
判断正(T)误(F)
1．The real Moon did not look like Bonestell’s pictures of it.(T)
2．Bonestell’s artworks were not highly thought of by the people.(F)
