Adolf Schaller

Adolf Schaller (born 1956) is an American award-winning painter, illustrator, astronomical artist, and musician. His work mainly involves portraying astronomical subjects such as extraterrestrial planets, planetary systems, and life forms.

Adolf Schaller was born in 1956 in Chicago, Illinois, to an immigrant musical family. He was interested in music from an early age. The first instrument he learned to play was an accordion and when he was nine years old, he learned to play the piano. During his teens, he played in different bands, first on the drums and later on the keyboard. He continued to make music throughout his life, though visual art remained his most important work.

In 1980, Schaller worked as a visual artist on Carl Sagan's television series Cosmos. For his work on the episode "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean," he and six colleagues—John Allison, Don Davis, Rick Sternbach, Jon Lomberg, Anne Norcia, Ernie Norcia—shared "Outstanding Individual Achievement - Creative Technical Crafts" at the 1981 Primetime Emmy Awards.

Sagan's bestselling book, Cosmos, which was published in connection with the television series, contains several of Schaller's works, including a number of paintings of imaginary alien planets and life forms, and "The Last Perfect Day," a four-part series of images showing the probable end of the Earth is depicted with the swelling of the sun and the evaporation of the seas on Earth.

In 1983, Schaller served as effects artistic consultant on Douglas Trumbull's sci-fi thriller Brainstorm, starring Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, and Louise Fletcher.

During his career, Schaller worked for NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute, among others. 

With colleague Donna Tracy, whom he met while working on Cosmos, he founded OmniCosm Studios, a company specializing in visual effects, animation, and music.

• Cosmos, (book by Carl Sagan) (1980)
• NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe (book by Terence Dickinson, 1983)
• Extraterrestrials: A Field Guide for Earthlings (co-author with Terence Dickinson,1994)