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 31, 2001. You can view the complete show script, or watch a RealPlayer video of the show.

Earth Closest To The Sun This Week, Mercury At Its Best Evening Appearance, And Jupiter At Its Closest And Brightest For The Entire Year!

Although Earth is closest to the sun in January, it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere because we are tilted away from the warmth of the sun's rays.

Mercury can be seen in the west just after sunset in January. Up and to the right of Mercury is the bright star Altair.

Still want to know more?

You should follow us on Twitter, here.

Click here for an archive of the past shows.