State selective differential cross sections for rotationally inelastic scattering of NO (J(i)=0.5, 1.5, F-1-->J(f)=2.5-12.5, F-1 and J(f)=1.5-9.5, F-2) from He and D-2 measured by crossed molecular beam product imaging are reported. The differential cross sections were extracted from the data images using a new basis image iterative fitting technique. The images typically exhibit a single broad rotational rainbow maximum that shifts from the forward to the backward scattering direction with increasing DeltaJ. The angle of the rainbow maximum was lower at a given DeltaJ for D-2 than for He as a collision partner. At a collision energy of similar to 500 cm(-1), primarily the repulsive part of the potential surface is probed, which can be modeled with a two-dimensional hard ellipse potential. This model for rotationally inelastic scattering is shown to qualitatively match the experimental differential cross sections. A more advanced correlated electron pair approximation potential energy surface for NO+He does not give substantially better agreement with the experiment. The differences between scattering of He and D-2 are partially attributed to their differing structure and partially to a small difference in collision energy used in the two experiments. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.