page_title: Star Gazers
section_title: Content
hierarchical_section_title: Star Gazers / Content
caption_attribution_description: Guide to using Big Dipper to locate Arcturus, Spica, and Polaris
context_page_description: Star Gazers is a short astronomy show on American public television previously hosted by Jack Foley Horkheimer, executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium. After his death in 2010 from a respiratory illness from which he had suffered since childhood, a series of guest astronomers hosted until 2011, when Dean Regas, James Albury, and Marlene Hidalgo became permanent co-hosts. In 2019, Dean Regas and James Albury stepped down from the program and were replaced by Trace Dominguez. On the weekly program, the host informs the viewer of significant astronomical events for the upcoming week, including key constellations, stars and planets, lunar eclipses and conjunctions, as well as historical and scientific information about these events.
  The program is available free to all Public Broadcasting Service public television stations, educational institutions and astronomy clubs. A month of episodes can be recorded from a satellite feed which occurs approximately two weeks before the official broadcast dates.
context_section_description: The show educates viewers about astronomical events for the coming week and about astronomy and astronomical history in general. Viewers learn about various constellations and how to find different stars. Horkheimer used catchy phrases to help viewers remember the procedures for locating astronomical bodies. "Arc to Arcturus, speed on to Spica", was a common phrase used to define the technique to find Arcturus and Spica using the handle of the Big Dipper. Following the arc of the handle will lead to Arcturus as shown in the diagram.
  Another method Horkheimer used to teach viewers about the stars was to tell stories about them. The Pleiades, also known as the seven sisters, was a constellation he would tell stories about. Stars with unique names, such as Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali were also used in the shows to help inform the viewers.
  When astronomical events were in the news, Horkheimer would speak of them, giving viewers much more detailed information. When Comet Hale-Bopp arrived in 1997 and when Halley's comet was visible in 1986, he did shows about them. In 1997, specific shows were made when Mars Pathfinder landed on Mars and when the spacecraft Galileo orbited Jupiter, both of which were major headlines in the news.
  The show has many catchphrases that viewers associate with Jack Horkheimer. Horkheimer's appearances on the show are always marked with his opening line, "Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers!" and his signature closing line, "Keep looking up!" These are the most widely recognizable quotes from the show but there were also others in common usage throughout the series.
  Horkheimer used "So get thee outside..." to encourage viewers to watch the stars. When describing the heavens he would often say "Let me show you." When introducing a picture of the night sky, he would often say, "O.K., we've got our skies set up for..." and then add a date and time.
  Each Star Hustler episode began with the announcer, Big Wilson, reciting this poem as the host walked onto the set:
  Some people hustle pool,
  Some people hustle cars,
  But have you ever heard about
  
  The man who hustles stars?
  After Big Wilson's death in 1989, Star Hustler continued to use Wilson's pre-recorded voice in the television program's introduction as a "living memorial" to the man, with Horkheimer announcing the week's episode title. This introduction would be replaced 1997 with the show's change to Star Gazer; from 1997 to 2011, each Star Gazer episode began with the announcer reciting the following poem:
  Confused about the cosmos,
  Can't tell a planet from a star?
  Then give us just five minutes,
  
  And we'll show you what they are.
caption: Finding Arcturus and Spica
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