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, December 17, 2001. You can view the complete show script, or watch a RealPlayer video of the show.

The First Day Of Winter and Why The Shortest Day Of The Year Doesn't Feel Like The Shortest

The winter solstice occurs when the sun passes through a specific point in the sky, in the constellation Sagittarius. This happens on Dec. 21 or Dec. 22 each year.

The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere. The sun charts a very shallow path across the southern horizon.

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Click here for an archive of the past shows.