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.
Satellite feed for June 1996 is as follows: The feed will be June 24 from
10 to 10:30 a.m. EasternTime on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Satellite feed for July 1996 is as follows: The feed will be July 29 from
10 to 10:30 a.m. EasternTime on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Satellite feed for August 1996 is as follows: The feed will be August 26
from 10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Notice : These are rough drafts of the scripts for STAR HUSTLER.
Changes may well be made as production requires.
STAR HUSTLER Episode #362-I
969th Show
To Be Aired : Monday 7/1/96 through Sunday 7/7/96
"What Jupiter Would Look Like If It Were Our Moon's Distance Away"
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers, and as you may recall
from our show a few weeks ago this is the week when the King of the Planets,
Jupiter, is at opposition. Indeed, the very day it comes into opposition
is Independence Day for the USA, the fourth of July. Now whenever a planet
is at opposition it means that it is in the opposite direction from the
Sun as seen from our planet Earth. It further means when the Sun sets in
the west Jupiter will rise in the east, travel across the sky all night
long, reach its highest point due south at midnight, and will set in the
west at dawn as the Sun rises in the east. In fact, whenever any planet
is at opposition you can see it in the sky all night long no matter what
hour you are outside. Let me show you. Okay, we've got our skies set up
for just after sunset any clear night for the next two or three weeks. And
if you look over toward the southeast you'll see two old friends, the Scorpion
looking like a capital letter 'J' , and right behind him the teapot-shaped
portion of Sagittarius. And, just above the teapot's handle, giant brilliant
Jupiter. Now as every amateur astronomer knows even the smallest, cheapest
telescope will show you the wonderful bands of weather that encircle this
humongous planet. Plus, four ever-changing pinpoints of light which are
Jupiter's giant moons. In fact, you can see the moons of Jupiter easily
with a cheap pair of binoculars if you hold them absolutely still or have
them mounted on a tripod. And, although they look like pinpoints of light
from Earth, two of them are almost exactly the same size as our two thousand
mile wide Moon, while two others are a thousand mils wider. And, while we're
all very used to seeing our quarter million mile away neighbor, the Moon,
illuminate our nights, have you ever wondered what it would look like if
we could move 88,000 mile wide Jupiter, which is 44 times the width of our
Moon - and 390 million miles away this week - to where our Moon is? Only
a quarter of a million miles away? Fairly easy to figure out because our
two thousand mile-wide Moon appears only one-half a degree wide in our sky.
So, since 88 thousand mile-wide Jupiter is 44 times wider than our Moon,
it would take 44 of our Moons lined up in a row to equal Jupiter's diameter
- which equals 22 degrees. Which means that if we could go outside any night
this week, press a magic button and zoom Jupiter towards us to our Moon's
distance it would look like this. And almost completely cover Sagittarius'
teapot. But to be totally accurate we'd have to do one more thing. You see,
because Jupiter is so incredibly huge it would be so bright that whenever
it appeared abov the horizon in Earth's skies every star would be wiped
out from view. Indeed, the only time we'd see the stars would be when Jupiter
was well below the horizon. And Jupiter would not be our Moon, we'd be its.
So, thank your lucky stars Jupiter is right where it should be - 390 million
miles away this week at opposition - just waiting for you to go outside
and remember 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
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.
Satellite feed for June 1996 is as follows: The feed will be June 24 from
10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Satellite feed for July 1996 is as follows: The feed will be July 29 from
10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Satellite feed for August 1996 is as follows: The feed will be August 26
from 10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Notice : These are rough drafts of the scripts for STAR HUSTLER. Changes
may well be made as production requires.
STAR HUSTLER Episode #363-I
970th Show
To Be Aired : Monday 7/8/96 through Sunday 7/14/96
"A Venus at Greatest Brilliancy/ Old Moon Spectacular! And A Red
Mars/ Red Stars Triangle"
Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers and boy, have we ever got some early
morning goodies for you. I mean, you just can't miss what's happening this
week and next. Let me show you. Okay we've got our skies set up for the
middle of this week, Thursday July 11th at dawn. And if you look toward
the east you'll see a fabulously brilliant planet - the second planet from
the Sun, Venus - outdazzling everything in the just before sunrise sky.
And off to its left, 8 1/2 degrees away, the red planet Mars, much dimmer
and kind of a rougey red gold in color. Up and to the right of Venus an
exquisitely slim, old crescent moon. And to complete the picture, directly
between the Moon and Venus the V-shaped portion of the star cluster called
The Hyades with its reddish eye star of the bull, Aldebaran shining bright.
And to top it off, directly above the crescent moon our old friends, Autumn's
seven sisters - The Pleiades. Oh what a package. But if you think this is
good wait until you see what happens the next morning Friday, July 12th.
Because on Friday the 12th an even older, slimmer crescent moon will have
snuggled up so close to Venus that it will take your breath away. An absolutely
rare coupling, which has been depicted on ancient cave walls and pottery
for thousands of years. Indeed, on Friday morning the 12th at dawn, 5 am
Eastern Daylight Time precisely, the moon will be only four tenths of one
degree away from Venus which is less than one full moon away. What an awesome
sight! Please, please don't miss this! Now on Saturday morning the 13th
at dawn an even slimmer, older moon will be far below Venus and all next
week you'll be able to see Venus about as bright as it ever gets, because
next week is the week of Venus' greatest brilliancy for this entire go round.
Indeed, it will outdazzle everything except the Sun and the Moon in the
morning sky all week long. And if you look at it through a small telescope
it will look like a wonderful crescent moon. Now, while you're out there,
particularly note the distance between Mars and Venus. Then at least once
a week beginning August 1st, go outside and watch them as they slowly come
closer and closer together. Because on Wednesday morning, September 4th,
Venus and Mars will pass within only three degrees of each other. And in
the meantime, if you draw a line between red Mars and red Aldebaran above
Venus, and another line between red Aldebaran and red Betelgeuse below Venus
and another line back to Mars you'll end up with a wonderful red cornered
cosmic triangle. And if you've got really dark skies see if you can distinguish
the difference in shades of red between these three crimson beauties. It's
tricky, but fun if you simply remember 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
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.
Satellite feed for June 1996 is as follows: The feed will be June 24 from
10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Satellite feed for July 1996 is as follows: The feed will be July 29 from
10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Satellite feed for August 1996 is as follows: The feed will be August 26
from 10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Notice : These are rough drafts of the scripts for STAR HUSTLER.
Changes may well be made as production requires.
STAR HUSTLER Episode #364-I
971st Show
To Be Aired : Monday 7/15/96 through Sunday 7/21/96
"The Biggest Planet, The Biggest Star and The Biggest Full Moon
of the Year!"
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers, and if you're the
kind of person who thinks bigger is better, well we've got a bigger and
better week for you next week because in one fell swoop we're going to show
you three of the biggest things that will dominate late July skies. Indeed,
not only are we going to show you the biggest planet and how to find it
once again, but, we're also going to show you the biggest star of summer
and how to find it. And for our finder we're going to use our nearest neighbor
in space which on Monday the 29th and Tuesday the 30th will be the biggest
Full Moon of the entire year. Let me show you. Okay we've got our skies
set up for Thursday night, July 25th just after it's gotten dark out. And
if you go outside and look due south you will see a lovely waxing gibbous
Moon, which translated simply means that the Moon is growing from small
to big, waxing, that is, and is slightly humped looking. In fact, the word
gbbous means humped. And the Moon does indeed look a little humped from
first quarter to Full. Now if you look closely just below this gibbous Moon
on Thursday the 25th, you'll see three stars almost in a row which mark
the head of the Scorpion. And just to their left you'll see the brilliant
heart of the Scorpion, the star Antares whose name literally means the Rival
of Mars. Because whenever Mars is visually close to Antares they rival each
other in color. Now on the next evening, Friday the 26th, ou will notice
the Moon has gotten slightly fatter and has passed to the left of Antares.
And Saturday the 27th, an even fatter Moon will be just to the right of
an extremely bright object, the biggest planet of them all, Jupiter. On
the night of the 28th it will have passed Jupiter and will be approaching
Full. Then on the two nights when the Moon is Full, the 29th and 30th, if
the Full Moon looks larger than usual to you, you'll be absolutely right
because it will be the closest Full Moon of the entire year; only 222 thousand
miles away, that's 33 thousand miles closer than the farthest and smallest
Full Moon of the year on January 5th. In fact, it will appear 15% larger.
But even though our two thousand mile wide Moon will look many times brighter
than the neighbor it visited a couple of nights before, Jupiter, it is nevertheless
dwarfed by Jupiter because Jupiter is so huge that it would take 44 of our
Moons lined up, side by side, to reach across Jupiter's middle. And as big
as Jupiter, and even though it appears brighter than the star Antares, Antares
in reality makes it look like a cosmic pee wee. Because Antares is so humongous
it would take 6,800 Jupiters lined up side by side to stretch across Antares
middle. In fact, because Antares is 600 million miles wide, if we placed
one edge of it where our Sun is, its edge would reach out past Mercury,
Venus, Earth, Mars and over two hundred million miles beyond Jupiter. You
see, I told you it was going to be a big week and its all for you for free
if you simply remember 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
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.
Satellite feed for June 1996 is as follows: The feed will be June 24 from
10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Satellite feed for July 1996 is as follows: The feed will be July 29 from
10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Satellite feed for August 1996 is as follows: The feed will be August 26
from 10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Notice : These are rough drafts of the scripts for STAR HUSTLER.
Changes may well be made as production requires.
STAR HUSTLER Episode #365-I
972nd Show
To Be Aired : Monday 7/22/96 through Sunday 7/28/96
'Blaze Star' : The Incredible Mystery of the Lost Jewel of the Northern
Crown - Part 1
Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers and this week I'm going to show
you one of the most exquisite tiny constellations of them all which is easy
to find if you have fairly dark skies away from city lights and use our
old Arcturus trick. Let me show you. Okay, we've got our skies set up for
this week between 9 and 10 pm your local daylight savings time. And if you
look to the left of due north, that is northwest, you'll find our old friend
the Big Dipper. Then using our standard old trick of drawing an imaginary
line following the arc of the dipper's handle we will arc to the closest
bright star, Arcturus. Remember? Arc to Arcturus? But then instead of continuing
that arc speeding on to Spica in the constellation Virgo, we will instead
this time simply hang a right at Arcturus, look slightly east of it, for
a star that is not nearly as bright as Arcturus but the brightest one in
the near neighborhood. its name is Alphecca and it is the brightest star
in a half circle of star we call Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown which
at this time is almost directly overhead. And the reason Alphecca is so
much brighter than the other stars in the crown is because it is so much
closer being only 75 light years away. And to make sure you've found Alphecca
and the Northern Crown and haven't gone too far to the east and stumbled
onto the Summer Triangle, well just keep in mind that between 9 and 10 pm
for the next two weeks the Northern Crown will be almost overhead and on
the meridian. That is on an imaginary line that we can draw from due North
to the top of the sky and down to due South. Now, although Alphecca is a
lovely star in the crown there is a far more interesting one. It is called
T-Coronae Borealis, or more popularly "Blaze Star", not to be
confused with the one who lit up Earl Long's career. At any rate, long ago
something very peculiar happened to this star which is so dim that it can
only be seen through a telescope. You see just one year after the end of
the Civil War on May 12, 1866 astronomers saw this star erupt into such
blazing brilliance that by the end of the night it was actually brighter
than the brightest star in the crown, Alphecca. Amazed by this incredible
outburst they calculated that its light had increased 2,500 times. But,
was this newly visible star to last? Was it destined to be the newest and
brightest diamond in the old Northern Crown? Well, by the next night it
had already begun to fade and just one week later it was once again invisible
to the naked eye. What in heavens name happened to it? And would it ever
be seen again? Well the answer is 'yes', but it would not be seen again
by those who had originally witness it. In fact, just as it had blazed forth
at the end of one great war so, too would it blaze forth at the end of another.
And next week we'll conclude our tale of the mystery of this lost jewel
in the Northern Crown, which is a cosmic tale you won't forget. In the meantime,
however, find the Northern Crown for yourself and its current brightest
star, Alphecca. It's easy if you remember 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
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.
Satellite feed for June 1996 is as follows: The feed will be June 24 from
10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Satellite feed for July 1996 is as follows: The feed will be July 29 from
10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Satellite feed for August 1996 is as follows: The feed will be August 26
from 10 to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Telstar 401, transponder 7-U.
Notice : These are rough drafts of the scripts for STAR HUSTLER.
Changes may well be made as production requires.
STAR HUSTLER Episode #366-I
973rd Show
To Be Aired : Monday 7/29/96 through Sunday 8/4/96
The Incredible Mystery of the Lost Jewel of the Northern Crown : Part
2, Conclusion
Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers and let me briefly recap last week's
show. You may recall that I showed you that to find the Northern Crown,
Corona Borealis, you simply go outside between 9 and 10 pm your local time
this week, find the Big Dipper and using its handle arc to Arcturus, then
hang a right and go east from Arcturus to the closest bright star which
is Alphecca, the brightest star in the Northern Crown. This week it is almost
overhead between 9 and 10 pm. To further recap I said that one year after
the Civil War, May 12,1866, a star, completely invisible to the naked eye
exploded 2500 times its normal brightness and became for one short night,
and one night only, the brightest star in the crown, then dimmed and disappeared
one week later. Named T-Coronae Borealis, astronomers of that time couldn't
figure out what happened to it. And not a one of them ever saw it visible
to the naked eye again. The century ended and a new one began. Then came
another great war, World War 1, came and went and yet another. And the exquisite
Northern Crown looked as it always had for thousands of years before and
as it does tonight. But then, one year after the second great war, World
War 2, on the night of February 9th, 1946 T-Coronae Borealis did it again
in an almost exact repeat performance of 80 years before - one year after
the Civil War. What in heavens name was going on? Well, although the astronomers
of 1946 didn't understand the complete picture they were able to determine
that the outer layers of this star had exploded and were expanding away
from the star at the rate of over 2,700 miles per second. And later studies
showed that while the brightest star in the crown, Alphecca, was only 75
light years away, this exploding star, T-Coronae Borealis was 2600 light
years beyond which meant that for it to become even brighter than Alphecca
it would have had to have blazed in just a few hours time from its normal
50 times brighter than our Sun to over 200 thousand times brighter than
our Sun. What could cause this? Well, astronomers now know that T-Coronae
Borealis is actually two stars, a giant red star with a blue -white dwarf
companion; and that normally gas is gravitationally interchanged between
the two. But every so often the super hot dwarf star reaches a critical
level of gas collected from the cool red giant star, its outer layers of
gas violently explode and fling their material throughout the heavens causing
the dwarf star to become thousands upon thousands of times brighter in just
a few seconds. And then after the gas is shed, the star quickly dims back
to its normal invisible-to-the-naked-eye brightness and the whole slow process
of accumulating gas to yet another critical level begins. So, will the now
invisible-to-the-naked-eye lost jewel in the crown, T-Coronae Borealis,
brighten again? In our lifetime? Will we have to wait another 80 years from
1946 to see? Who knows? But one night if you're lucky, perhaps you may see
the lost jewel of the Northern Crown blazing away in all its brilliance,
for one brief night and one night only, if you simply remember 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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