About The Show

Each weekly episode of Star Gazers educates viewers about astronomical events for the upcoming week that can be seen without the aid of a telescope, including key constellations, stars and planets, lunar eclipses and conjunctions, along with historical and scientific information about these events. The popular astronomy series has continued in distribution from South Florida PBS (originally as WPBT) since the beloved original award-winning series hosted by the late Miami Space Transit Planetarium executive director Jack Horkheimer. Since Horkheimer’s passing in 2010 Star Gazers has retained the spirit of accessible astronomy Horkheimer established, with the current hosts encouraging viewers to “Keep looking up!” at the close of each program.

Series consultant Ata Sarajedini, professor and the inaugural Bjorn Lamborn Endowed Chair in Astrophysics at Florida Atlantic University and Scientific Editor for the Journals of the American Astronomical Society, added, “Star Gazers is a unique opportunity for FAU to share our strengths as a research university in a way that benefits the community at large and opens up astronomy to everyone. We are grateful for this partnership with South Florida PBS and hope to expand upon it with future projects.” The award-winning astronomer has made extensive use of the Hubble Space Telescope and has an exceptional ‘h-index’ scholar score of 45 for scientific publication.

Series host Trace Dominguez is widely praised as an award-winning and inspiring science communicator, content creator and curiosity explorer. His decade of work as a science educator includes the launch of one of YouTube’s first daily science shows among his dozens of popular online channels dedicated to discovery; the Webby-winning launch of a 360-degree camera on a weather balloon to the stratosphere; and co-hosted segments with President Obama during the White House’s Science Week. Said Dominguez of his new role on Star Gazers as an ambassador of astronomy, “If it's out there, I'm looking for a better way to understand it - and I’m very excited to join my new friends in public television for this adventure.”

Star Gazers guides viewers to search the skies based on visibility in the eastern United States, but viewers across the country in different time zones can still benefit from the short episodes that public television stations air either between regularly scheduled programming or online. In addition to the weekly briefs on current events in the night sky, the series includes ‘evergreen’ segments about astronomical phenomena like black holes.The episodes may also be used as part of classroom teaching plans.

Major funding for Star Gazers is provided by The Batchelor Foundation; The William J. and Tina Rosenberg Foundation; and Trish and Dan Bell.