Jack Horkheimer, Public Television’s “Star Gazer” and the director of Miami’s Space Transit Planetarium,’ died Friday, August 20th, at the age of 72. WUWT readers may fondly remember him at sign off time on PBS-TV, impishly sitting on the ring, grinning that cheesy smile from under his “rug”, and telling us us “whats up” in the sky this week. He made astronomy fun.
From Spaceweather.com Dr. Tony Phillips:
Jack was a giant of astronomy outreach, bringing the heavens down to Earth for millions of people from all walks of life. Among them was the author of this web page as a young student in Florida so many years ago. Jack’s loss is keenly felt. Farewell, Jack Horkheimer, and “keep looking up!”
More at the Miami Herald.
Personally, even though I never met him, I feel like I lost an old friend.
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The Star Gazer theme was Isao Tomita’s version of Debussy’s Arabesque #1 –
Anything by Claude Debussy makes one gaze at the stars, no doubt.
Rest in peace, Jack.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
I guess this was your ‘Patrick Moore’, (not the Greenpeace one,) so I feel your loss in the same way I will feel the loss of Patrick when he, inevitably, passes away.
DaveE.
As a kid growing up, I would always wait until midnight and sneak out to watch his show, and to listen to the great theme, which if we got to hear more than a minute of on PBS before they went to static was a real treat.
He was an iconic figure in astronomy to a generation of amateur Star Hustlers, was always informative and educational, and truly made the night sky a much more fascinating place than it had been. It truly is like losing an old friend.
I’ll always remember to keep looking up.
You can be an archeologist your whole life and never get to visit the Pyramids of Egypt. You can be a geologist and never see the Hope Diamond. But the stars and planets are yours mine and everyones. You can pull them out and hold them in your hands, the original jewels with your own eye for the price of a pair of binoculars and a fence post to lean on. Astronomy is special that way. This is what Jack taught me.
I haven’t had my telescope out of storage for quite a long time. Living in Sacramento with all these bright lights it really defeats the purpose. For these things ; tracking the red spots on Jupiter, using high power and a detailed map to tease Neptune’s disk out of a crowded star field, viewing Saturn with the ring edge on, showing your kids the craters on the moon; the gravy of life.
I really needed an excuse. Thanks Jack, for giving me an excuse.
In memory of Jack Horkheimer, the Star Hustler.
Jack Horkheimer, the Star Hustler for the week August 17th-25th (youtube video).
I’m with boballab….I was (and still am) a great big PBS dork. Loved Jack Horkheimer and am sad to hear of his passing, but just think if the view he has now!
A true bon vivant of popular astronomy is gone. Bon voyage, fellow stargazer.
He will be missed. An entire generation of our country was introduced to star gazing through Mr H’s regular spots and always present enthusiasm. I always appreciated his show for updates because frequently I didn’t have time to keep up with the events in the heavens.
RIP Mr H and keep looking up!
Dang – I’m sorry to hear he’s gone. Listening to the Debussy brings it back.
Always cheesy, Mr. H’s show – and ALWAYS worth watching. RIP.
Ric Werme says:
August 21, 2010 at 6:10 am
“I was quite surprised when I bought Isao Tomita’s “Snowflakes Are Dancing” on a whim and discovered I now had “Star Gazer’s” theme music.”
Thanks, Ric. I liked the virtuoso whistling in the theme music. Serious whistlers don’t get much respect in mainstream entertainment. Let’s see. There’s Colonel Bogey, from the old movie, Bridge Over the River Kwai. There’s a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western from the 1970s. (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?) Trilling octaves ain’t easy. And more recently, there’s the X Files theme music
He was also quite a partier: http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/08/31/jack-horkheimer-knew-how-not-to-party/