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Arizona Highways' LATEST Book DISCOVER ARIZONA'S NIGHT SKY

The night sky in Arizona is unbelievable. With the unaided eye, you can see countless stars and at least five planets. You not only see the Big Dipper in Ursa Major and its little counterpart, but also Bootes, the herdsman; Leo, the lion; Corvus, the raven, and on and on. With the help of binoculars, more comes into view: the twin stars in the handle of the Big Dipper, a cluster of tens of thousands of stars that appears as a small cottony object of incredible beauty, and one of the most distant things seen by the unaided eye: Andromeda Galaxy, 2.2 million light-years away.

What Arizonans take for granted in the clear night sky, people in places like New York City, Detroit, Chicago, and Philadelphia never see because of the glare of urban lights, weather patterns, and the gauzy blindfold of air pollution. So attractive is the starry Arizona sky, that it does not take long to get caught up in it. Find Saturn. Find Venus. There's Taurus, the bull. Now where's Orion, the hunter? Studying the sky for many people is peacefully relaxing. For others it is informative. And for still others, it is entertaining.

For all those enthralled by the night sky as well as for those who live elsewhere and don't yet know what they're missing Arizona Highways has published a new book: Discover Arizona's Night Sky. Wherever you live, East Coast or West, it will help you find your way around the galaxy. The book is divided into the four seasons and has star charts and full-color photographs of the night skies visible at those times. Some stars in each photograph are labeled to get you started. There are detailed charts of many individual constellations to help you translate what you see in the sky. There's information on planets, the moon, and even a section on meteor showers and when to expect them. The book is a great layman's guide to the heavens.

Discover Arizona's Night Sky was written by Raymond Shubinski, who has directed two of the nation's largest planetariums and has written extensively on astronomy. He currently is executive director of a natural history museum in Illinois. The pictures, as unbelievable as the Arizona sky itself, are by Mesa's Frank Zullo, the West's premier photographer of the night sky whose work has been published widely in the best magazines in the country.

This is a book to have fun with. Here are some excerpts:

BOOTES, THE HERDSMAN

For reasons now lost, Bootes represents a man pursuing Ursa Major, the Great Bear, about the sky. Imagine the bright star Arcturus (fourth brightest in the night sky) as the tip of a cone. Let your eyes move toward the north, and you can trace the shape of the body of the cone. Finally, you'll come to a group of stars that round off the top, making a very believable ice-cream cone. If you look early in the evening in April or May, you will find the cone tipped on its side. Just below it, you'll see a delicate curved cluster of stars called Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. This is actually the second scoop of ice cream that fell off of Bootes.

LYRA, THE HARP

Summer is a great time to stargaze in Arizona, if only because the sky is banded by the Milky Way. But in addition, we enjoy looking for Lyra, the Harp. The harp once belonged to the musician Orpheus, according to legend, who could tame any creature by playing his instrument. One of the three constellations of the summer triangle, Lyra forms a distinct but small rhombus-shaped group of four stars capped on one side by the brilliant star Vega, the fifth-brightest star in the sky. By the beginning of July, Lyra is well up from the eastern horizon at 9:00 Р.М.

Vega is the most beautiful aspect of this constellation. It's a mere 27 light-years from Earth. It would outshine our sun 58 times and appears a dazzling blue-white in most optical instruments.

THE BIG DIPPER IN URSA MAJOR

The Big Dipper (FOLLOWING PANEL, PAGES 24 AND 25) is so prominent that most ancient cultures envisioned some imaginary figure using these seven bright stars. The Egyptians saw the leg of a bull, while several thousand years later, the English made a plow or wagon from them.

Another reason the Big Dipper has always been such an important grouping is its association with the North Star, or Polaris. The two stars at the end of the bowl, named Merak and Dubhe, point to the North Star. If you simply extend a line from Merak through Dubhe away from the bowl, the next bright star you come to will be Polaris.

The Big Dipper contains a number of marvelous objects. The star in the middle of the curved handle is named Mizar. If your eyes are like mine, you'll need to use binoculars to split this pair. Even though Mizar and Alcor lie approximately 550 trillion miles away, they are still very near the Earth compared to most stars.

THE LITTLE DIPPER IN URSA MINOR

The Little Dipper (FOLLOWING PANEL, PAGES 24 AND 25) contains three bright stars and four rather faint ones. The two stars at the end of the dipper's bowl are bright enough to be seen from most cities. They're known as the Guardians (Kochab and Pherkad) of the pole because of their proximity to the celestial pole. The third star of this trio is perhaps the most famous star in the sky. It is Polaris, the North Star, the only star that always appears in the same spot in the sky, very near the north celestial pole.

Polaris was not always the North Star. During the days of Egyptian pyramid building, 5,000 years ago, a star named Thuban, in the constellation Draco, the Dragon, reigned supreme in the northern sky. The gradual change occurred not because the stars are moving around, but because the Earth wobbles very slowly like a top. This wobble will eventually cause Polaris to move away, too, until it is no longer useful as the North Star.

To Order: Discover Arizona's Night Sky, usable for stargazing throughout the continental United States, is $7.95 Softcover. Write to Arizona Highways, 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85009, or call toll-free 1 (800) 543-5432. In the Phoenix area, 258-1000.

Photo Tour: Frank Zullo will direct cameras to the night skies on the Superstition Mountains Photo Tour April 17-19. Call the Friends of Arizona Highways Travel Desk at (602) 271-5904 for additional information and reservations.