Jack Horkheimer: Ambassador to the Stars

[Chris_]

Amateur astronomy lost one its most iconic figures today. Jack Horkheimer, known to millions as public television's ebullient "Star Gazer," died this afternoon at age 72. The exact cause of death was not disclosed, though he had battled chronic respiratory problems for decades.

Horkheimer had been a fixture at the Miami Planetarium for more than 45 years, where he began as a volunteer and served as its executive director since 1973. But he'll be remembered most for his exuberant and often zany television persona, who helped us all appreciate the breadth and depth of eyeball-only astronomy.

Sky And Telescope

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8WuPntvX7g&feature=related[/youtube]

[DefiantSix]

Wow.  I used to watch his spots late at night.

'Keep looking up', Jack.  We'll miss you. 

[ColonialMarine0431]

Wow.  I used to watch his spots late at night.

'Keep looking up', Jack.  We'll miss you. 

Ditto! 

[Wineslob]

Awwwww, the guy was really good at making a rather boring (sometimes) subject exciting.*

Keep looking up buddy.



















*
Yes I "do" astromomy, but unless you have a "love" for it, sometimes it's lackluster. I'll never forget the times I've shown people the Orion Nebula (I have a 10" dia. scope) and they go, "Oh, wheres the color?" "Only in photo's" I have to tell them. Because the light is so faint, it will only trigger the green receptors in your eyes, so it all looks greenish, not the pretty colors in photo's. Or when I have to tell them to use averted vision to see a faint object, say, the Crab Nebula, because, again, it's not like the photo's they see.
I hear alot of "Oh, that's it?"   Oh well.