NEW YORK.- Space artist Helmut Wimmer, 80, died in Stuart, Florida on March 20, 2006, but officiañs at the Hayden Planetarium just learned recently of his death. Helmut Wimmer painted planets, stars and black holes at New York's Hayden Planetariu. He was staff artist at the planetarium from 1954 to 1987.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium and an astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History, said, "Without his art, your planetarium experience would be limited to pointing out the stars of the night sky. His artwork allowed generations of visitors to transport themselves from Earth to the surface of a star, the lunar landscape, the vicinity of a black hole."

"For whatever he would draw, he would read the latest research, take data from telescopes and space probes and capture it as accurately as possible," Tyson said.