Blazoning the Heavens

THE DISCOVERY OF OUR GALAXY

by CHARLES A. WHITNEY

308 pages. Knopf. $10.

THE BEAUTY OF THE UNIVERSE

by HANS ROHR, translated and revised by

ARTHUR BEER

87 pages. Viking. $10.

The Rosette in Monoceros. The Veil in Cygnus. The Ring Nebula in Lyra. Even the names have a special loveliness. Say them aloud: the Cluster in Berenice's Hair, the Horsehead in Orion, the Crab Nebula in Taurus. As science presses its probes to the most inner recesses of the mind, to the most minute structures of matter and the very processes of life, jubilation may be called for, or anxiety. But only the astronomers, searching out the reaches of space that are the boundaries of time as well, can evoke a sense of might and beauty that inspires reverence.

Two professional astronomers have published books that blazon the heavens for the layman. Professor Charles Whitney of Harvard has jotted down from his readings in the history of his own science a carelessly graceful, highly personal account of the long evolution of the idea that our sun is merely one star, of unexceptional luminosity, located near the rim of a vast wheel of stars more numerous than the sands of the seashore. This spiral galaxy in turn is merely one among a countless number.

Whitney is often felicitous, and only sometimes obviously secondhand. He is at his best in an engaging account of William Herschel, an 18th century oboist who deserted the Prussian army, emigrated to England, and at the age of 35 turned to building telescopes. Herschel was possibly the greatest observational astronomer in history. One night in December 1779, he was looking at the moon through a telescope he had built. A gentleman asked to look and "expressed great satisfaction at the view." The gentleman was soon a friend, who introduced Herschel to the Royal Society and to King George III. Herschel soon became the court astronomer, showing Saturn to the princesses at Windsor. This happy chain of encounters, as Whitney retells it, typifies the charm and enthusiasm not only of Herschel but of the book as well.

Future Suns. Herschel described the Great Nebula in the Sword of Orion as "an unformed fiery mist, the chaotic material of future suns." Today's astronomers have far more powerful instruments than Herschel had, but the description stands. The photos of the nebula and other far-out phenomena in Whitney's book are copious and often stirring. They are bettered, how ever, by Hans Rohr, general secretary of the Swiss Astronomical Society, in what is essentially a book of pictures with extended captions. Many of Rohr's illustrations are in color. Starlight is white to the eye even through telescopes, but the fault is the eye's. Now the true mixture of colors has been captured with new film and carefully contrived exposures. The results are stunning. The filamentary clouds that surround the Pleiades are blue. The Veil in Cygnus is a flutter of gauze, violet shading to blue. The nebula M51 in Canes Venatici is a breathtaking pinwheel of emerald and turquoise studded with diamonds. The wheels within wheels of the Great Nebula in Andromeda are as stupendous as its haunting name, all lime green with a nucleus of glowing citrine.

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