Panoramas

768 feet above the corner of Stonewall and Tryon Streets, the "handle" that tops the Duke Energy Center stands in stark relief against a brilliant Carolina sky. A crane is permanently installed to allow workers to be lowered onto the sloped glass faces of the upper stories beneath the handle. Panoramic photo composite by GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

The Nigrelli, Dalton, Geitner and Roberts families kept snowplows away from 5th St. NW in Hickory so sledding could commence Saturday afternoon after a fast-moving, strong winter storm dumped a thick blanket of snow across the Unifour region of the NC foothill. Panoramic photo composite by Jeff Willhelm - jwillhelm@charlotteobserver.com

Behind the bright lights illuminating the speedway, a whole culture watches from the darkness. Some watch televisions, others climb atop their campers and motorhomes and see the race action first-hand.

Panoramic photo composite by Gary O'Brien - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

In September 2008, ironworkers were erecting scaffolding to support concrete forms for the lowest level of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, just outside the curved wall of the Full Throttle Theatre.
Panoramic photo composite by GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

A brief, fast-moving rain shower left a long-lasting double rainbow over the Charlotte uptown skyline on this sultry summer afternoon. GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

Backing away from the Lunar Module, Neil Armstrong shot 11 frames on a specially modified Hasselblad camera, capturing the scene at Tranquility Base. Behind Armstrong, the sun, unfiltered by any atmosphere, causes lens flare in two of the frames. Near the LM, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. unpacks a passive seismometer and a retroreflective array, two of the science experiments carried to the Moon by Apollo 11. NASA photos by Neil Armstrong, panoramic photo composite by GARY O'BRIEN - gobrien@charlotteobserver.com

On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. walked on the face of the moon. Their primary mission was to gather lunar rocks and soil, and take pictures to document the landing site. This panorama was compiled from one of the four panoramas they took during their time on the surface. In order to work in the harsh conditions of temperature extremes and vacuum, the astronauts used specially modified Hasselblad cameras.

The term sol is used by planetary astronomers to refer to the duration of a solar day on Mars. The Spirit rover has spent 1905 sols (1854 earth days) working on the Martian surface as of June 27, 2009. The panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit took the hundreds of images combined into this 360-degree view, the "Husband Hill Summit" panorama. The images were acquired on Spirit's sols 583 to 586 (Aug. 24 to 27, 2005), shortly after the rover reached the crest of "Husband Hill" inside Mars' Gusev Crater. The panoramic camera shot 653 separate images in 6 different filters, encompassing the rover's deck and the full 360 degrees of surface rocks and soils visible. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

At 6593 feet, Mt. LeConte is the third-highest peak in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It's one of the more remote sites for a mountaintop lodge anywhere in the Southeastern U.S. Panoramic Photo Composite by John Simmons - jsimmons@charlotteobserver.com