It's barely July and University of Redlands astronomer Tyler Nordgren is well into his summer book tour. It's not quite the glamorous trip he might have imagined -- swanky hotels with champagne and turn-down service are scarce on his schedule, and Oprah hasn't yet come knocking.

Instead, Nordgren is driving his RAV4 from one park to the next in the western United States. The SUV is loaded with camping gear, camera equipment and five boxes of copies of his book, "Stars Above, Earth Below: A Guide to Astronomy in the National Parks."

"I thought once I wrote the book my job was done," Nordgren wrote in an e-mail last week. "I just waited for my publisher to book me on 'Oprah' or 'The Colbert Report,' then watch as the New York Times ran a review and the sales took off."

He didn't get to hang onto that dream very long. Another author told him that might happen to the likes of a writer named Grisham, but probably not to him.

"You are out there pounding the streets drumming up publicity yourself, in hopes that by the time your second or third book comes out people will recognize your name and it will become worth the publisher's time and money to promote you," Nordgren wrote.Not that he's complaining. His book was released this spring, several weeks later than expected because of the publisher's decision to run more photos in color. Not bad news, since Nordgren shot most of the photographs.

"The initial plan was to have only 200 images with half (black and white)," Nordgren wrote last week. "The final product has almost 400 images, almost all in vibrant color. Unfortunately, this pushed the publishing date back, but the final book is so much better than what it would have been."

Nordgren's photos are startling time-lapse images that show the night sky in brilliant detail while soaking up enough light to illuminate the landscape as well.

The cover photo shows the Yosemite Valley, millions of stars visible in a dark blue sky while the granite cliffs gleam golden, seemingly in the last light of day. Photos of the Grand Canyon show stars burning so brightly they light up the red rocks below.

Nordgren, an associate professor of physics at the University of Redlands, shot the photos during a yearlong sabbatical in which he visited parks across the nation.

Now he's off visiting some of those parks again, giving talks about the night sky to visitors and, he hopes, generating interest in the book. Many of the national park bookstores are carrying it, he says. And if they happen not to have it, he does have those copies tucked away in the RAV4.

So far, his tour has taken him to Yosemite, Tucson for the International Dark Sky Convention, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico. Tonight Nordgren will observe the Fourth of July by giving a star talk in an amphitheater at the Grand Canyon's south rim. "Oh, and we start off with a patriotic sing-along," he wrote. "How much more American can you get?"

He hopes his efforts will help people realize how much of the night sky they have lost to light pollution. He's had some encouraging moments, like an encounter with a man the day after a talk who said he had spent some time that night stargazing on his own. "He told me he ... was amazed by what he could actually see for himself and how it had changed his feelings about why he couldn't see anything back home," he wrote.