STAR GAZER
THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION
1048th Show
To Be Aired : Monday 1/5/98 through Sunday 1/11/98
Greetings! Greetings! Fellow stargazers and while
I was thumbing through the new Old Farmer's Almanac I stumbled across the
best description I've ever heard of the first planet out from the Sun. Indeed
it referred to Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, as charbroiled and
on a carousel ride. And since Mercury's daytime temperature is over 700
degrees Fahrenheit, charbroiled describes it quite well. As for the
Carousel ride part? Well if I can expound upon the description
of Mercury's orbit as seen from Earth I think you'll be able to understand
why Mercury pops in and out of Earth's skies so many times during the year,
appearing alternately as a morning star and then as an evening star several
times every year, the reason being that Mercury makes one orbit around the
Sun every 88 Earth days which means that Mercury makes over 4 trips
around the Sun for every one the Earth makes. So from our viewpoint Mercury
is usually too close to be seen. The only times we see it is when
it is at its farthest points east and west of the Sun. Now when it is at
its farthest eastern point point from the Sun we see it after the Sun sets
as an evening star. But when it's at its farthest point west of the Sun
we see it as the morning star. And whenever it makes an appearance it is
rarely visible for more than two weeks at a time. Now if we could plot Mercury's
farthest Eastern and Western points from the Sun as it races along in its
88 day orbit, it would look something like this for 1998. The first two
weeks of January it is a morning star, seen just before sunrise. Then it
zooms too close to the Sun to be seen from Earth and reappears
as an evening star during the last two weeks of March. Then in late April
and May it appears once again as a morning star. However for viewers
in the Northern hemisphere it will be almost impossible to see because of
the angle of its orbit. Continuing its carousel ride it next appears as
an evening star the first couple weeks of July and then zooming toward
the Sun once again it disappears for a few weeks and reappears as a morning
star from the end of August through mid-September. Then once again plunges
out of sight and reappears as an evening star in late October. But once
again we in the Northern hemisphere will not be able to see it. Then finally
it will make its last appearance of the year as a morning star from mid
December through the first few days of 1999. And guess what? Right now,
through the end of this week, Mercury is making a very nice appearance as
a morning star. And to find this charbroiled 3 thousand mile wide planet
bobbing in and out of Earth's skies like a horse on a carousel, simply go
outside about an hour before sunrise, look southeast and if you have a clear
flat unobstructed horizon, there you'll see it. A planet that has more ups
and downs than Wall Street, but which is however, far more predictable.
And yet another good reason to Keep Looking Up!
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce
this episode of Star Gazer
For graphics for this script (Click) Here
* This week's Sky At A Glance and Planet Roundup from Sky
& Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
1049th Show
To Be Aired : Monday 1/12/98 through Sunday 1/18/98
Horkheimer: Greetings, Greetings fellow stargazers
and OK, I know that some of you real serious astronomy types get your telescopes
all in an uproar whenever I create my own astronomical terms for
happenings in the heavens. But golly, folks, if astronomy can't be fun then
why even bother ? You see, for the past 20 years whenever a couple of planets
come real close together I always say that they scootchie up real close.
And whenever they get super-close to each other I then say we're in for
a grand scootchie. But to be serious whenever two planets come fairly close
visually as seen from Earth, astronomers say that the two planets are in
conjunction, or if they're super close, in a grand conjunction. But the
term conjunction is really only good for the one day or night when the planets
are at their closest. I like to watch it all, from the planets slowly scootchieing
up on each other to their finally meeting and their slow parting, the de-scootchie,
so to speak. And believe me, if you start watching Jupiter and Mars from
this week to the 20th you are going to witness the grandest scootchie-up
for the entire year of 1988. Let me show you: O.K., we're looking at the
skies just as it starts to get dark out, Sunday night, January 11th facing
West/Southwest, where you will see brilliant 88 thousand mile Jupiter only
five degrees away from dim, 4 thousand mile wide Mars which means that we
could fit only 10 Full Moons between them. But if you watch the next week
and a half you will see the two of them slowly creep up on each other until
on Tuesday night, January 20th they will be closer than any two planets
get for the entire year. Let's do some time lapse. O.K., Monday, January
12th, Tuesday, the 13th, Wednesday the 14th and Thursday the 15th when they
will be only 3 degrees apart and six Full Moon widths could fit between
them. Then on the next night they really close in on each other and will
be less than 2 degrees apart, only 4 Full Moons could fit between them.
On Sunday the 18th, only 2 1/2 Full Moons could fit between them; Monday
the 19th only 1 1/2 Full Moons and Ta Da! on Tuesday January 20th, night
of the grand scootchie, or conjunction, Mars will be only 2/10ths of one
degree away from Jupiter which means, since you've probably already figured
out that a Full Moon is 1/2 a degree wide, that less than half a Full Moon
could be slipped between them. Wow! This is going to be a sight. Please,
please don't miss this because you won't see them this close together again
until January 6, 2018. And if you happen to have a pair of binoculars you
should be able to see the discs of these planets and the differences in
their colors. And if you have a small cheap telescope you'll see 3, maybe
4 of Jupiter's 4 largest Moons alongside the 2 scootchied up planets. Then
for the next few days watch these two planets say farewell and slowly drift
apart. It's almost as much fun as watching them come together and one more
good reason to Keep Looking Up!
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce
this episode of Star Gazer
For graphics for this script (Click) Here
* This week's Sky At A Glance
and Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
1050th Show
To Be Aired : Monday 1/19/98 through Sunday 1/25/98
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers,
and once again UFO Season officially opens this week because believe me
that whenever a certain thing happens in the heavens, UFO reports come in
from all over. Let me show you: O.K., we've got our skies set up for Tuesday
morning this week, about half an hour before sunrise facing East/Southeast
and if you have an absolutely clear flat horizon, unobstructed by trees
or buildings you will see a very bright UFO-like light hovering along the
horizon and to its right a much dimmer light which we can identify as the
planet Mercury. And the next day, Wednesday morning, just before dawn our
bright UFO light will hover just a little bit higher above the horizon while
planet Mercury dips just a little bit lower. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday
the same scenario and on Sunday the two will be joined by a lovely crescent
Moon. Then on Monday an absolutely exquisite pairing of a very old crescent
Moon and an even higher UFO. And some time from Thursday the 20th through
the end of January UFO reports will come in. And it's easy to understand
why because our UFO is really the planet Venus, the brightest planet in
the heavens. And because it keeps switching its appearance from that of
a morning star to an evening star and back again, whenever it makes it reappearance
in either evening or morning it usually takes takes people unawares. And
several factors, not the least of which is called auto kinesis sometimes
make Venus appear to move back and forth and up and down in a most un-planet-like
but UFO-like fashion. And so, people are rightly fooled. In fact, if you
stare at Venus long enough you just may be able to see for yourself it seem
to wander up and down or sideways. And although some people think it's funny
that other people mistake Venus for a UFO, don't be too hard on anybody
because it's a perfectly natural mistake. In fact a few years ago a railroad
engineer actually brought his train to a screeching halt when he saw
Venus slowly rise in the early dawn in the distance over the middle of the
tracks and he thought that he was staring straight into the headlight of
an on-coming train. And it gets even better. Because one Naval admiral was
very embarrassed by the fact that he actually ordered his ship to fire on
Venus. Indeed, every large city probably has records on file of patrol cars
being sent out to investigate Venus when it hovers near the horizon. In
fact, it is even rumored that jets were once scrambled to chase after the
supposed intruder into our air space. But intruder it is not. Indeed, it
is 25 million miles away from us this week and if it were sentient and had
a sense of humor it would probably smile at us Earthlings who are so frequently
fooled and frightened by its comings and goings. So get thee outside some
morning just before dawn this week to see an IFO, an Identified Flying Object
just before sunrise in the East/Southeast and prove to yourself that it's
really fun to Keep Looking Up!
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce
this episode of Star Gazer
For graphics for this script (Click) Here
* This week's Sky At A Glance
and Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
1051st Show
To Be Aired : Monday 1/26/98 through Sunday 2/1/98
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers, and for those of you who have difficulty finding naked-eye planets, well every once in a while our Moon most graciously lends a helping hand and acts, so to speak, as a celestial pointer. And such is the case this Sunday night, February 1st when a wonderful crescent Moon will place itself right alongside the 6th planet out from the Sun, the beautiful ringed planet Saturn. Let me show you: O.K., we've got our skies set up for the end of this week, Thursday night the 29th at dusk, just as it starts to get dark out, looking West/ Southwest where you will see an exquisite slender crescent Moon cozied right up next to dim, dim Mars. So we're using our Moon first to locate Mars which is very difficult to find right now because it is so dim. And below Mars and the Moon, brilliant Jupiter. Friday at dusk the Moon will have moved quite a bit beyond Mars and Jupiter and even farther beyond on Saturday the 31st. But on February 1st, Wow! The crescent Moon will be so close to Saturn it almost seems to be saying: "Here's the ringed planet. If you've never found it before, now's your chance." So, don't miss this easy way to find Saturn by using the Moon just as it starts to get dark Sunday night, February 1st. And while you're out there consider this: while our Moon is a dinky 2 thousand miles wide and only a quarter million miles away, Saturn, from one side of its ring system to the other is 176 thousand miles wide which means that we could line 88 of our Moons up side by side from one edge of its rings to the other. And talk about distance, it is currently 908 million miles away. And if you have a pair of binoculars use them Sunday night. Now while you're out there you may notice that the Southwest sky has practically no bright stars in it whatsoever. But if you look over to the Southeast the situation will be much different. Indeed, the brightest stars of the entire year will seem to be all huddled together in a group in the Southeast; the stars of Orion the Hunter, Canis Major, the Big Dog and Canis Minor, the Small Dog. And just as Summer has its Summer Triangle of 3 bright stars, so too does Winter have its Winter Triangle, although its three stars are much brighter than those of Summer's triangle. to find them start with the brightest star in the heavens, Sirius in Canis Major, close to the horizon, draw a line Eastward to connect with Procyon, the brightest star of Canis Minor and draw another line up to the bright red star, Betelgeuse, in the shoulder of Orion, and another line back down once again to Sirius. And there you have an absolutely perfect equilateral triangle of extremely bright stars. So, get thee outside to watch the Moon approach and visit Saturn on February 1st and delight in the brightest triangle in the heavens which Winter's clear crisp skies bring us every year. It's easy, just Keep Looking Up!
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce
this episode of Star Gazer
For graphics for this script (Click) Here
* This week's Sky At A Glance
and Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
Return to the [STAR GAZER Main Page]