Starry Night This Week

Each week most PBS stations air "Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer", the world's first and only weekly TV series on naked-eye astronomy. The Starry Night images on this page illustrate the show for the week of Monday August 12, 2002. You can view the complete show script, or watch a RealPlayer video of the show.

The Great Mars Approach Begins! As Mars Prepares For Its Closest Meeting With Earth In 60,000 Years!

Mars reached conjunction with the Sun on August 10th. Meaning that it was in line with the Earth but on the opposite side of the Sun.

On August 27th, 2003 Mars will get really close to the Earth, a mere 34 million miles away. At this time it will be the second brightest planet in the sky after Venus.