Jack Horkheimer, host of 'Star Gazer,' dies at 72

[sonnymax]

I'm sure I'm not the only guy here who enjoyed the Star Gazer back in the late seventies and eighties.

Heck, I even bought Tomita's Pictures At An Exhibition because it included the show's theme song.

Anyway, I was very sad to hear about the recent death of the show's inspiring host.

Jack Horkheimer, 72, 'Star Gazer' and host of public TV astronomy show, dies

By Emma Brown

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Jack Horkheimer, a playwright turned amateur astronomer who inspired millions of people to look a little closer at the nighttime sky with his pioneering planetarium shows and long-running public television show, "Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer," died Aug. 20 in Miami of a respiratory ailment. He was 72.

Mr. Horkheimer was perhaps most widely known as the ever-enthusiastic, slightly bug-eyed host of his television show, originally called "Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler," which ran for more than 30 years and offered naked-eye astronomy lessons in digestible doses.

He was still writing and hosting the weekly five-minute segment at the time of his death; prerecorded episodes scheduled to run through Sept. 5 are available on his Web site. Using plain language, cheesy animation and a trippy-spacey synthesized soundtrack, he deciphered constellations and explained everything from solar eclipses to the winter solstice.

"Greetings, greetings, fellow stargazers," was his signature introduction, delivered each week with caffeinated eagerness.

Often pictured perched on the cartoon rings of Saturn, Mr. Horkheimer also recounted age-old myths about the celestial realm. The constellation known as Lepus the hare, he reminded viewers in a 1986 episode, has been seen in the West as a "heavenly rabbit, huddled and cringing in fear in the grass beneath the feet of Orion the Hunter." Or, according to Chinese tradition, it is a rest stop in the sky -- in Mr. Horkheimer's terms, a "heavenly outhouse in the sweet bye and bye."

"If you've never heard this stuff before," he told Astronomy magazine in 2006, "it blows your little blue booties off because it's fun, fun, fun."

Washington Post link

P.S. Mr. Horkheimer was recently the subject of a possible legal suit of a rather sordid nature. In keeping with the tone of an obituary thread, could we please keep any comments about said topic respectful and at a minimum? Thanks.

[AllenLowe]

hmmmm.......that last warning is like a "Wet Paint" sign - now everybody's going to wanna check it out -

[BruceH]

Those little "Star Gazer" segments ran on some local station here. Cheesy but kind of nice. I had no idea he was in his 70's now.

[Jazzmoose]

54, if I remember right. I never really looked for the show, but if it followed something I watched, I certainly wouldn't turn it off, although with my eyes, and the suburban lights, actually seeing anything in the sky outside was a bit of a stretch.