When illustrators Wendell Minor and Mike Wimmer began work on their latest children's books, "Look to the Stars" and "One Giant Leap," respectively, they had to make sure they had the little details right. After all, the history of space flight has many followers who are sure to notice mistakes.

"This is a factual event so you have to make sure details are correct," Wimmer said in a phone interview from his studio in Norman, Okla. "As far as facts, for my research, I bought a large-scale model of an actual astronaut in a replica of the spacesuit, so that all the details would be correct."

Wimmer, whose book focuses on the Apollo 11 moon landing, talked and worked with NASA on a regular basis, taking advantage of its vast visual library. Utilizing the images from NASA, Wimmer would stage scale models of the lunar lander and the Apollo 11 spacecraft so that he could get the correct lighting. He even made a lunar landscape on a large table with divots, holes, rocks and sands so that it would look like the lunar surface.

Working with NASA engineers made attaining accuracy in "One Giant Leap" a simpler process, Wimmer said. He would finish sketches and submit the paintings to NASA, and the engineers would write back telling him what needed to be changed.

"They would write me back specs, sometimes two-page specs for one painting," Wimmer said. " 'Oh Mike, this painting is very nice, but the aerial antennae would not have been deployed at this time in the mission, it should be more like this.' They were very conscious about this being correct, which made me even more conscious about it being correct."

But even while trying to remain as accurate as possible, there were some things Wimmer had to take artistic license on. "There's one scene where the Eagle has landed and you see the small aircraft above in space. In reality you wouldn't have been able to see it, it would have been a little speck if anything. But for my audience, who are children, it has to be recognizable as the Apollo spacecraft."

Minor worked with Buzz Aldrin on "Look to the Stars," which covers the basics of why we look to the stars and 500 years of flight history. To accomplish this, he used digital models and mockups to help him with positioning and shadows. And like Wimmer, Minor also used NASA's library, but he had the additional help of personal photographs supplied by Aldrin, too.

"Look to the Stars" was a collaborative effort from beginning to end, Minor said from his studio in Washington, Conn. Aldrin gave him a basic outline, and the two did several recording sessions in which they blocked out the book. Once it got to the manuscript stage, it was passed back and forth.