STAR HUSTLER
THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION
STAR HUSTLER is seen nationally on most PBS stations. If it is not currently
on your PBS station we suggest you contact your local PBS programming director
and let them know it is available free to all PBS stations. You may take
a months worth of STAR HUSTLER off satellite for personal use, classroom
use, astronomy club use, etc.
1026th Show
To Be Aired : Monday 8/497 through Sunday 8/10/97
Greetings! Greetings! Fellow stargazers! And have
you ever wondered how you can you tell a planet from a star just by looking?
Well, the simplest answer is, stars usually twinkle while planets do not,
although that rule does not always apply especially when a planet is close
to the horizon where Earth's many turbulent layers of atmosphere make even
planets appear to twinkle. However, as a general rule when planets are high
up off the horizon they shine with a light much steadier than that of the
stars. There's also another way to tell a planet from a star, and that is
simply to see if the bright object you're looking at lies along the celestial
pathway the Sun, Moon and all the planets travel. You see, the planets always
travel along this narrow pathway sometimes above its centerline, which is
called the ecliptic, sometimes below it. And once you spot one planet you
can usually find another by simply looking along this pathway, like connecting
the dots. And this week is a perfect week for pathway planet hopping. Let
me show you. O.K., We've got our skies set up for just after sunset before
it gets completely dark out. If you look to the West you will see the brilliant
second planet from the Sun, Venus. And just below it the not as bright pinkish
planet Mercury barely visible in the evening twilight glow hugging the horizon.
Now just for fun connect these two with an imaginary line, then let's extend
that line in a gentle curve and see if any other bright objects lie along
it. Sure enough, as we extend our gently curving line up and to the left
we run smack dab into two semi-bright objects one of which twinkles and
one of which doesn't. The one that doesn't, of course, is a planet - the
planet Mars . Then, if we further extend that line we'll bump right into
a very bright light which is the largest planet of them all, Jupiter. And
if we had a pair of binoculars we would have noticed on the way to Jupiter
we would have also bumped into the planets Neptune and Uranus. In fact,
if we wait for a couple of hours and extend that line from Jupiter we will
run right into Saturn just rising. Now the planets are seldom smack dab
on the center line of this pathway but they are always within a few degrees
away from it- sometimes above it, sometimes below it. But remember I also
told you that this was the path of the Sun and the Moon? Well, this week
is a good time to prove it because if you observe a few nights starting
Tuesday the 5th, you'll be able to track the Moon as it travels along this
pathway growing as it goes and visiting each planet in turn. Tuesday, August
5th it will be right between Mercury and Venus. Friday and Saturday, the
8th and 9th, the Moon will pay a visit to Mars. And the following weekend
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, August 15th, 16th and 17th, the Moon will glide
past Neptune and Uranus and almost slam into Jupiter. And finally, on Friday,
August 22nd, our Moon will snuggle up to the ringed planet Saturn. So, now
you know how to find the planets. Simply take a visual walk along the pathway
of the planets. It's easy if you just Keep Looking Up!
* This week's Sky At A Glance and Planet Roundup from Sky
& Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
1027th Show
To Be Aired : Monday 8/11/97 through Sunday 8/17/97
Horkheimer: Greetings! Greetings! Fellow stargazers!
And as all of you out there already know, the first half of this summer
was absolutely dominated by the red planet Mars because of the incredible
Pathfinder/Sojourner landing on July 4th. But as I've always told you, the
heavens they are always changing. And so, if you've gotten a little tired
of hearing about Mars in the media, well, a new planet has stepped in to
steal its thunder and take center stage for the end of this summer of '97
and throughout the rest of this year; the great planet Jupiter around which
our spacecraft Galileo is orbiting and sending back incredible pictures
every few weeks or so of both Jupiter and several of its many, many moons.
The reason Jupiter is now the featured attraction is because just this past
Saturday, August 9th, Jupiter was officially at opposition which means that
this is really the best time this entire year to view Jupiter because Jupiter
is now at its closest, biggest and brightest. Additionally, whenever a planet
is at opposition it lies directly opposite the Earth from the Sun. And so,
is seen in the sky all night long from sunset to sunrise. Let me show you.
O.K., If you go outside any night this week just after sunset and look toward
the Southeast you'll see a brilliant beacon of light just above the horizon
and that, my dear friends, is the planet Jupiter which indeed right now
is at its closest, biggest and brightest for the entire year. And if you
have even the cheapest pair of binoculars you will be able to see maybe
two, three or even four of its biggest moons looking like tiny white pinpoints
of light on either side of the planet. In fact, some people with very exceptional
eyesight can actually see these moons under ideal observing conditions with
the naked eye alone. Now if you make it a point of going out with a pair
of binoculars at the same time each night, let's say 10 o'clock or so, you'll
notice that those pinpoints of light, these moons, constantly change their
position from night to night. For instance, this weekend, Friday the 15th,
the moons will be positioned like this around Jupiter. Saturday night, the
16th like this and Sunday, the 17th like this. Monday the 18th, Tuesday
the 19th, Wednesday the 20th and so on. And keep in mind as you gaze at
these moons that right now Galileo is waltzing around them taking the best
snapshots of them ever seen in history. Now, some things to keep in mind
as you start your Jupiter watch, and that is that from one hour to the next
Jupiter will move 15 degrees, that is the width of 30 full moons, towards
the West. In other words, if you observe it in the Southeast at sunset it
will be due South and at its highest between midnight and one A.M., And
it will be setting in the Southwest at sunrise. You should also keep in
mind that while our Earth is eight thousand miles wide, Jupiter is eleven
times the width of our planet at 88,000 miles wide, thus 11 Earths would
stretch across Jupiter's middle. So, get thee outside and enjoy the splendors
of the king of the planets at its best. It's easy if you just Keep Looking
Up!
* This week's Sky At A Glance and Planet
Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
STAR HUSTLER is seen nationally on most PBS stations. If it is not currently
on your PBS station we suggest you contact your local PBS programming director
and let them know it is available free to all PBS stations. You may take
a months worth of STAR HUSTLER off satellite for personal use, classroom
use, astronomy club use, etc.
1028th Show
To Be Aired : Monday 8/18/97 through Sunday 8/24/97
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers,
and have you ever wondered why with all of the animals depicted by various
civilizations in the heavens we always seem to talk about dogs instead of
cats? I mean, you always hear every winter about Orion's two dogs - his
big one, Canis Major, and his small one, Canis Minor. And you also hear
about the two hunting dogs Canes Venatici. But outside of Leo the Lion and
its cub Leo Minor and an occasional mention of Lynx the Bobcat, how often
do you hear about a pussycat represented in the heavens? Not very often
I'm sure. In fact, in the twenty-one years we've been doing Star Hustler
we have never, ever mentioned what's probably the cutest little kitty in
the cosmos - or at least the parts of it which are visible every summer.
They're actually part of my favorite and the most dreaded constellation
of summer skies, Scorpius the Scorpion. Let me show you. O.K., We've got
our skies set up for any night this week and next around 10 pm local time.
And if you look to the South you will see the fish hooked shaped, or capital
letter `J' shaped constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. And although every
summer we always tell you about the wonders of the giant red heart star
of the scorpion Antares, and the two wonderful star clusters M-6 and M-7
which lie just above the Scorpion's stinger, nevertheless, for some reason
we always seem to neglect to tell you to look a little more closely at the
stinger which is where our pussycat resides. Now if you look carefully at
the stinger you will see that it is made up of two stars - lambda, the brighter
one, and upsilon, the dimmer one. And way back when, even in Babylonian
times these two stars together were called `the stinger'. In fact, their
Arabic names Shaula and Lesath mean `the sting'. In folk legend however,
they are not just `The Sting' but also the two eyes of a celestial cat called
simply ` the cat's eyes'. And they stare out at us every single summer year
after year after year. Now although they don't appear to be all that exceptional,
if you look deeper into these cat's eyes with the telescopic eyes of modern
science we can discover the secrets they have hidden from the eyes of man
for thousands of years. The brighter one, Shaula lies at a distance of 280
light years away which means that the light we see this summer left this
star 280 years ago. And two times the diameter of our Sun, almost two million
miles wide, it burns a fierce blue-white with a luminosity 1200 times that
of our own star. But the dimmer eye Lesath has kept an even more marvelous
secret over the eons, for the only reason it is dimmer is because it is
1600 light years away. And with a diameter seven times that of our Sun it
burns even more fierce blue-white and outshines our Sun 15,000 times. Some
pussy cat, hey folks? So, get thee outside some time this week or next to
find the kitty in the cosmos - two cat's eyes peering through the night
and riding across the heavens on the sting of the Scorpion. How appropriately
placed with their truly fierce wonder. And how wonderful it is to Keep Looking
Up!
* This week's Sky At A Glance and Planet
Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
STAR HUSTLER is seen nationally on most PBS stations. If it is not currently
on your PBS station we suggest you contact your local PBS programming director
and let them know it is available free to all PBS stations. You may take
a months worth of STAR HUSTLER off satellite for personal use, classroom
use, astronomy club use, etc.
1029th Show
To Be Aired : Monday 8/25/97 through Sunday 8/31/97
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers, and you know since a lot of you will be out far aWay from city lights for the Labor Day weekend I thought I'd show you some absolutely exquisite things you can see this unofficial last week of Summer which will make your Labor Day weekend absolutely celestial. Let me show you. O.K., We've got our skies set up for between 9 and 10 pm, your local time any night over the entire Labor Day weekend. And this year since there will be no moonlight in the sky before midnight on those nights, if you're far from city lights you'll have an excellent opportunity to see some of the celestial wonders of late Summer not only overhead but stretched from horizon to horizon. First of all, if you look almost overhead you will see three extremely bright stars which if you could connect with three imaginary lines would form the enormous and famous Summer Triangle - the brightest star belonging to Lyra the Harp, the second brightest to Aquila the Eagle and the third brightest, Cygnus the Swan. And if you are really far away from city lights where it's good and dark out you will see the Milky Way stretching out from both sides of the Summer Triangle all the way down to both the northern and southern horizons. And just slightly west of south, where the Milky Way is at its brightest and thickest you'll see our old Summer friend Scorpius the Scorpion followed by the teapot-shaped portion of Sagittarius. Now you know, I used to have a problem with the Summer Triangle being smack dab overhead in early evening at the end of Summer and not at the beginning of Summer. But I finally made my mind up that perhaps it is just as well because as the Days begin to grow shorter and chilly we at least have something bright overhead for a couple of months in Autumn to remind us of the wonderful Days of Summer. Now, after you get home from your Labor Day weekend we've got a lovely sky show for you planned the following weekend. Indeed, if you go outside and face west-southwest every night from Thursday the 4th through Sunday the 7th just after it starts to get dark out, you'll be able to see an exquisite pairing of the planet Venus and the great star of Virgo, Spica. Indeed, you'll actually be able to watch an exquisite Crescent Moon glide past the two on Thursday night the 4th and Friday night the 5th. And on the 6th and 7th you'll be able to watch the moon glide past Mars. However your best bets are Thursday and Friday night the 4th and the 5th because then the Moon, Spica and Venus will make an exquisite threesome. And while you're looking at these three keep in mind that while our Moon is 2000 miles wide and Venus is 8000 miles wide, Spica is another story. For it is over twice the diameter of our Sun, almost two million miles wide. Think of it, our Moon 2000 miles wide, Venus 8000 miles wide and a two million mile wide star which is so far away that its light takes 260 years to reach us. Indeed, when we look at Spica this Labor Day weekend we'll be looking at the light that left it in the year 1737. Wow. Isn't it fun to Keep Looking Up!
* This week's Sky At A Glance and Planet
Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
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