Kaleidoscope Sky

A magical, illustrated tour of nature’s wondrous, almost supernatural skyscapes, Kaleidoscope Sky reveals the beauty—and the science—behind Earth’s rarest, most unusual celestial phenomena.

For millennia, the sky has provided a spectacular show with bright, quiet sunrises and fiery red sunsets, the wispy, whimsical patterns of clouds passing overhead, or the violent thrill of lightning flashing at night. In Kaleidoscope Sky, author Tim Herd explains to the armchair voyager the conditions that produce these everyday phenomena, as well as rarer sights including auroras, halos, mirages, arcs, and even moonbows (nighttime rainbows often too faint to capture on film). Although the subject is complex, Herd provides a clear, accessible guided tour of the fleeting, ephemeral works of art that populate the heavens’ own natural museum. Herd’s non-technical treatment reveals his own appreciation for (and wonder at) the awesome and wonderful palette of the sky above us. In addition to shedding light upon the causes of these unusual spectacles, Herd provides tips on the best ways to predict, locate, and observe these phenomena.