Arizona Sunshine

A Source of Energy all Winter Long Arizona Sunshine

Solar energy is a very popular topic today, as well it might be, for we have only to look at diminishing earth resources then glance at the sun.

The sun is truly a rampaging power that staggers the imagination. It is 1,300,000 times larger than earth. Each second, it converts four million tons of hydrogen into radiant energy, creating more energy in one second than man has had since the beginning of civilization!

So immense is the sun, that it can go on consuming itself for billions of years to come, just as it has for four to five billions of years already.

It takes about eight seconds for sunlight to traverse the 93 million mile distance between the sun and earth. But before it reaches us, our protective blanket of atmosphere filters out the dangerous high-energy rays and allows light and heat to reach us.

It is the sun's radiation which moves our atmosphere and makes weather and climate; causes ocean water to evaporate and then fall as rain; gives us most of our useful energy sources through coal, oil, wind and water power, and produces our food through sunshine absorbed by plants.During the winter months, our sun takes on special meaning to those living or visiting in Arizona. Arizona sunshine is like a giant magnet, pulling people onto golf courses, inviting them to go horseback riding, to hike, to swim, to play shuffleboard and tennis, and to shop in bright and interesting stores. Many others are content just to sunbathe and act as solar collectors absorbing solar energy.It's a delightful energy-maker, the Arizona sun, that comes to us slowly each morning as warm-colored light, moves higher and stronger in the sky by noon, and finally ends the day on the western horizon in a magnificent sunset.

Yes, residents and visitors to Arizona in the winter have found a way of harnessing solar energy. Or is ol' Sol playing a trick on us whereby we reach down and uncover some "human energy" that had been kept in cold storage?

(Left) A graceful, lone Canada goose tests its wings on the sun-warmed air. Jim Tallon (Right) A desert chiaroscuro, cholla and Montezuma Head in Organ Pipe National Monument. David Muench (Below) A silent audience of saguaros enjoy ol' Sol's energy show. Tucson Mountain Park. David Muench

(Left) Bow hunting on Mt. Graham near Riggs Flat. Gill Kenny (Below) A cowboy's day in the sun, the rodeo at Sonoita. Gill Kenny (Following panel, Pages 28-29) A sunlit Superstition panorama. Great cacti flank the somber battlements of the Superstition Range. David Muench

(Left) Sunset on the desert. The end of another solar day. Ed Cooper (Right) Sunset, time for the coyote, who seeks his energy in a slightly different form. Jim Tallon (Below) A final salute to a departing friend. Saguaro silhouettes on the Apache Trail. David Muench