Olympus Mons. 48 x 48. (Letter to Dr. Susan Sakimoto re plans for this painting.)

If the viewer of this painting would stand 10 feet from the surface of
the canvas, his viewpoint should be the same as if he were 2100 miles
above the surface of Mars at point 15 degrees north of the Martian
equator and 117 degrees west. These coordinates are in the lower
right-hand quarter of the painting; therefore, this view of Olympus is
slightly to the northwest rather than being directly above it. This is
a quiet summer afternoon in the northern hemisphere, with the great
mountains Ascreus and Pavonis lying within the shadow-line of evening.
Olympus Mons rises 88,000 feet above the plain. Ascreus and Pavonis
are over 80,000 feet, but not quite as high as Olympus. The
concentric dark roughness on the sand-swept surface around Olympus
shows ancient lava flows from this immense mountain.

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