Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Jack Horkheimer, host of public television's Star Gazer segments, died Friday of a respiratory ailment, the Miami Herald reports. He was 72 years old.
Horkheimer was the executive director of the Miami Museum of Science and Space Transit Museum for over 35 years as well as a nationally known commentator on astronomical events.
He is best known as the host and creator of Star Gazer, a weekly astronomy program where he showed viewers how to recongize different planets, constellations, and other objects in space that could be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
Horkheimer began the program in 1976 under the name Star Hustler. It has run continuously on public television stations across the country ever since.
Although Horkheimer had been "ill for quite some time," according to museum officials, he continued to produce the program up until his death. His final segment, in which he points viewers toward the Summer Triangle, airs this week.
Horkheimer ended each of his segments by enthusiastically encouraging viewers to "keep looking up." Miami-based PBS station WPBT says it will continue to produce the segments with a guest host.