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.
1022nd Show
To Be Aired : Monday 7/7/97 through Sunday 7/13/97
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers, and once again it's
Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali time. So loosen up your tongue, fasten
your cosmic seat belts and let's go outside to find them. OK, we've got
our skies set up for any night the next couple of weeks just after it gets
dark out. And if you look South you will see the giant fish-hook shaped
constellation of Scorpius the Scorpion followed by the teapot shaped portion
of Sagittarius. But up and to the right of the fish-hook of Scorpius you'll
see two semi-bright stars with some of the strangest sounding names in the
heavens, Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali. Now in case you have a hard time
finding them you can use the old moon trick next Monday night July 14th
when the moon will be smack dab directly between the two. Zubenelgenubi
will be below the moon, Zubeneschamali will be above it. Now in arabic,
Zubenelgenubi means 'the southern claw' while Zubeneschamali means 'the
Northern claw'. And a couple thousand years ago they were the claws of the
scorpion. But then Julius Caesar and his cronies came along and lopped them
off and renamed them Libra the Scales for the symbol of roman justice.
Which I'm sure led many an ancient star gazer to mutter, ..."There
oughta be a law..." . At any rate, these two stars are wonderful and
although they appear visually to be the same brightness from Earth, actually
they are very, very different. For instance, Zubenelgenubi is about 65
light years away from our planet Earth and shines 25 times brighter than
our own Sun, and it is approaching us at the incredible speed of 6 miles
per second. And upon closer examination we also find that Zubenelgenubi
is not just one, not even two, but three stars, two of them so close together
that they orbit each other once every 20 days. On the other hand, Zubeneschamali,
the Northern claw is over twice as far away as Zubenelgenubi being 140
light years distant. And although it appears the same brightness as its
claw companion, it isn't. For it is 6 times brighter than Zubenelgenubi
which means that it is over 150 times brighter than our Sun. And it is speeding
toward us 4 times faster than Zubenelgenubi at a rate of 21 miles per second.
And Zubeneschamali is also at the center of a centuries old debate. You
see, over two thousand years ago it was listed as the brightest of all the
stars of the Scorpion, even brighter than Antares. A few centuries later
however the great astronomer Ptolemy described Antares as equal to Zubeneschamali
in brightness. But today Antares appears 5 times brighter. Has Zubeneschamali
dimmed over the past two thousand years? Or, conversely, has Antares gotten
much, much brighter? At any rate, it's always fun to try to pronounce these
two tongue-twisters of summer. So get thee outside to do some Zubenelgenubi-ing
and Zubeneschamali-ing. 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.
1023rd Show
To Be Aired : Monday 7/14/97 through Sunday 7/20/97
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers, and have we ever
got something nifty for you to follow in the sky every night just after
sunset from the end of this week all the way through next week. A real
cosmic dance between two planets and a star. Let me show you. O.K., We've
got our skies set up for late this week Thursday the 17th, just after sunset
before it gets completely dark out. And if you look west northwest and have
a clear flat horizon you will see three equally spaced objects. The brightest
one, the one in the middle, is our old friend, the second planet out from
the sun, eight thousand mile-wide Venus. And down to its right, much dimmer
and very close to the horizon, the first planet out from the sun, three
thousand mile-wide Mercury. And up and to Venus' left the brightest star
in the spring constellation Leo the Lion, the 4 million mile-wide star,
Regulus. Now if you watch, night after night, at the same time just after
it starts to get dark out you will see an exquisite slow pas de trois. For
instance, if you go out the next night, Friday July 18th, you'll see that
Regulus has moved slightly closer to Venus and Saturday night, the 19th,
closer still. Sunday evening the 20th, they'll be only 3 degrees apart,
which means that we could fit only 6 Full Moons between them. And monday
evening the 21st, only 2 degrees apart, only 4 Full Moons widths separate
them. Tuesday evening, they're only 1 degree and 2 Full away from each
other. Then on Wednesday evening Venus will be on the other side of Regulus.
. . As Regulus starts its close approach to Mercury. On Thursday evening
the 24th Regulus will be between Venus and Mercury, equidistant between
the two. Then Friday night the 25th it will be very obvious that Regulus
is indeed almost on a collision course with Mercury because on that evening
they will be only one degree away from each other, only two Full Moons apart.
Then on Saturday,the 26th ta da! they will be at their very closest and
only one Moon could be slid between them. And if you still have a really
clear and flat unobstructed horizon a week later on Monday evening August
4th you just may, if you're lucky, be able to see a slender sliver of a
one day old crescent Moon hugging the horizon, while Regulus will be on
the other side of Mercury getting ready to leave our night skies. In fact,
it might be fun to see how long you'll be able to track Regulus before it
slips below the horizon and disappears from evening skies until next Spring.
And notice how dramatically Regulus has changed its position since the 17th
- from being the highest above the horizon to the lowest. Once again,
our cosmic ballet speeded up, the 17th, the 18th, the 19th, 20th, 21, 22,
23, 24, 25, 26, and finally Aug. 4th. Proving once again that there's always
something to watch in the heavens if you just take a little time out 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.
1024th Show
To Be Aired : Monday 7/21/97 through Sunday 7/27/97
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers, and mark July 29th
as the night the planet George comes into opposition which simply means
that it will lie opposite the Sun as seen from Earth and will be closest
to our planet for the entire year and will be visible in the sky all night
long from sunset to sunrise. Let me show you. O.K., We've got our skies
set up for any clear night next week between 9 & 10 pm, your local time,
facing South where you will see the two most fabulous constellations of
summer - the fish hook-shaped Scorpius the Scorpion and the teapot-shaped
Sagittarius. And to sagittarius' left the bright planet jupiter, and between
jupiter and Sagittarius the very dim but very wonderful giant gas planet
named George which was discovered by a professional oboist and organist
turned amateur astronomer, Sir William Herschel. Indeed, Sir William was
so enthralled with astronomy that he conducted a systematic search of the
heavens with one of his homemade telescopes back in 1781. And after calculating
the orbit of a so-called comet which he discovered, he realized that his
comet was not a comet at all but had to be a planet. So he immediately named
it for his benefactor George the Third of England. Thus the planet, for
awhile anyway, was named George. Well, this rather irked some some non-George
loving astronomers so they renamed it Herschel after its discoverer. But
a few other astronomers claimed that they had seen it before Herschel, even
though they didn't recognize it for what it was. So they insisted that neither
George nor Herschel should get the credit and that the planet should be
named after one of the ancient gods as were all the other planets. And
they named it for the Greek god who had charge over all the heavens, even
before Zeus came along, Uranus. A god who was both son and husband of Gaia,
the Earth, father of the Titans and the Furies and the race of one-eyed
giants known as the Cyclops. And although Herschel and his fellow astronomers
never lived to find it out we now know that the planet variously named
George, Herschel and Uranus is as strange as the god for which it was named.
Indeed, Uranus is often called the sideways planet because it travels around
the Sun on its side with its north pole pointed directly at the Sun during
part of its orbit and its South pole pointed to the Sun during the other
part which creates the longest seasons ever on any planet in our solar system.
In fact, each season on Uranus is 21 Earth years long. And right now Uranus
is situated so that we are looking directly at its north pole. To find
it, use a pair of binoculars and look 24 full moon widths to the right of
Jupiter for a teeny-weeny blue-green disc which in reality is a planet four
times the width of our Earth, has its own set of 10 rings and supports a
family of 15 moons. It's truly weird but wonderful, by George, so 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.
1025th Show
To Be Aired : Monday 7/28/97 through Sunday 8/3/97
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers, and right now mark
Monday night, August 11th, 11 pm as the time you'll want to go out to observe
the annual return of the most famous meteor shower of all time, the Perseids,
because this year the First Quarter Moon will be setting just about that
time and will provide a moonless night so that you can see the faintest
of these meteors. And the reason I'm giving you two weeks warning is because
since a lot of you will undoubtedly be out away from city lights on vacation
I want you to have plenty of time to plan ahead to watch. Now, right off
I'd like to get a couple of things straight. And that is that I personally,
strongly dislike the term 'meteor shower'. I much prefer the term 'meteor
sprinkle' because at the peak of almost any meteor shower the most meteors
you can expect to see are about 50 to 100 per hour, except of course for
extremely rare occasions when all heaven breaks loose and thousands can
be seen. But those are rare, rare unexpected occasions. So, if you can
content yourself with the fact that during a good meteor shower you may
have a chance to see 50 or so meteors streak across the sky during the course
of an hour then the Perseids is one of your best bets. But you have to
follow some simple rules. And these rules are perfect for people who are
on vacation because number 1, you have to be far, far away from any city
or artificial lighting where if you look up you can see at least a couple
hundred stars. And, rule number 2, you should simply lie back on the ground,
or better yet in a reclining lawn chair, and slowly scan the skies back
and forth for at least an hour. Number 3, never use binoculars or a telescope.
And number 4, you have to have patience. Now if you follow these rules
and it's clear out and there's no moonlight in the sky to interfere, you
will see several meteors per hour. And this year we're very fortunate because
the 1st Quarter Moon is setting just as the best part of the meteor shower
is getting underway especially for North and South America. So, head out
just before midnight Monday the 11th, plan to stay out for two or three
hours into the wee hours of Tuesday morning the 12th. And if you're out
with the whole family see who can count the most meteors in one hour. But
what are meteors, anyway? Well, they are not falling or shooting stars
even though that's exactly what they look like. In fact, meteors are simply
little specks of comet debris shed all along a comet's path as it travels
around the sun. And every time our Earth rides through one of these paths
of comet litter, little pieces of debris slam into our Earth's atmosphere
so fast and so hard that they burn up and look like shooting stars. Now
the Perseids are the comet debris from a comet named Swift-Tuttle. So, plan
now for the Perseids, Monday night the 11th and Tuesday morning the 12th,
and have enough blankets, lawn chairs, coffee and hot chocolate to while
away the hours as you watch the heavens sprinkle forth their meteoritic
glory.Its fun and 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.
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