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 September 6th, 2010. You can view the complete show script, or download an iTunes/iPod video of the show.

Mercury in the Morning and Jupiter at Night

Your "morning star" this month is Mercury. Note that it's very close to the horizon, less than a handswidth away. If you have a clear view to the east, without trees or buildings or hills, get up before sunrise and look for Mercury. (A word of caution -- if you want to look at it through a telescope or binoculars, do it before the Sun comes up, to keep your eyes safe!)

The brightest object in your eastern evening sky will be Jupiter. Point a pair of binoculars at it and you'll see something like this -- bright Jupiter in the center, and blue-green Uranus off to the side. They'll appear so close together that you can see them both in the same field of view!