We Love the Night Sky with Author Tim Hunter

When: Wednesday, February 15, 2023, 6 p.m.

Where: Western National Parks Association Store, 12880 N Vistoso Village Dr, Oro Valley, Arizona

Join The Sky at Night author Tim Hunter for a celebration of the night sky! David Levy, who co-discovered the Comet Shoemaker-Levy in 1993, kicks off the event. Then a U.S. National Park Ranger will briefly talk about why National Parks are the best places to see stars. To prepare us to look through several telescopes set up on the patio, Tim Hunter will tell us what we can see in the February night skies. To make the most of your own backyard night sky viewing, Hunter’s book will be available for purchase and signing.

About The Sky at Night:

An avid stargazer and astronomy columnist, Hunter covers all the basics—from the Moon, planets, and stars to the history and origins of constellations and selected famous astronomers and events. Emphasis is on naked-eye viewing with an occasional reference to using a pair of binoculars or a small telescope, encouraging beginners to explore the skies while giving them a solid understanding of what they see.

Excerpt from The Sky at Night:

Most of the brighter stars in the sky have names with Arabic roots, the result of the fact that early Islamic astronomers working in the Middle Ages adopted Greek constellations from Ptolemy and applied their own Arabic names to stars. When Islamic astronomy texts were translated into Latin, translation and transcription errors mangled many of the Arabic names such that the ones we know today can bear little resemblance to the originals. Other star names come from ancient Greek or Latin and refer to the location or another unique characteristic of a particular star. Examples of ancient Greek, Latin, and medieval Arabic star names include Sirius (“searing” or “scorching” in ancient Greek), Polaris (“pole star” in Latin), Deneb (“tail” in Arabic) in Cygnus the the Swan, and Denebola (“lion’s tail” in Arabic) in Leo the Lion.