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American Morning
Interview with Dr. Jack Horkheimer, Susan Miller
Aired April 17, 2002 - 07:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, we've got a freebie for you this morning. Round up your kids for a special show tonight. Tonight is the night for a unique planetary alignment. The out-of-this world view comes when five planets, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mercury, will all align.
And for once, you won't need a telescope or a Ph.D. in physics to see them. Astronomer Dr. Jack Horkheimer is the director of the Miami Planetarium and the host to the TV series, "Stargazer," and he also happens to be the author of "Planets and Possibilities," and he joins us from Miami. We'll that happens to be Susan Miller you are looking at now. Oh, my goodness, how Dr. Horkheimer has changed!
JACK HORKHEIMER, DIRECTOR, MIAMI PLANETARIUM: Yes, a lot more hair.
ZAHN: You look to be (UNINTELLIGIBLE), yes, exactly. Let's also meet astrologer Susan Miller, who is here with me in New York -- welcome to both of you.
So, Dr. Horkheimer, how unusual is this alignment we'll be seeing?
HORKHEIMER: Well, this alignment occurs about once every 20 years in the evening skies. But the interesting thing about this one, Paula, is that even though people are touting tonight, tonight is only beginning of a six-week-long planetarium pinball game. Actually this Saturday and Sunday will be even better. Tonight when you go out west just after sunset, look to where the sun went down just after dark, and you'll see five planets lined up in a row like pearls on a string.
ZAHN: Oh, I can hardly wait to see it, and we're going to have a clear night here tonight. Doctor, historically, tell us about the significance of this, because as I understand it, ancient astronomers found great significance in this pattern.
HORKHEIMER: Well, you see, if you look at the stars at night, you will notice that most of the stars are fixed in relation to each other in what we call patterns, constellations. But the ancient astronomers noticed that there were a few stars, which they called planetus (ph), which in Greek means the wanderers, there were a few stars that seemed to wander among the others.
These wanderers, these planetus (ph), we call the planets. They aren't stars at all. They are close members, planetary bodies in our solar system, and they do wander among the other stars. And that's what starting to happen right now. If you go out every night for the next six weeks, you will notice that Saturn and Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and Mars will all be changing their places in relationship to each other.
It really gets good this weekend, especially on Saturday night, national astronomy day, right after sunset, and if you have a small telescope, it would be the perfect time to use it, and really fabulous configurations occur in the next weeks. One of the most spectacular will occur the first week of May, when three planets will be grouped in a triangle just above the western horizon. It's a very wonderful planetary naked-eye sky show, and I strongly recommend that parents take their kids out, because you know, this the kind of thing that turns kids on to astronomy and perhaps, one, they will be become a future astronomer or an astronaut.
ZAHN: Well, I think that's great. And like you said, you don't have to have a telescope to see it. Doctor, before we let you go, will this have any impact on us here on earth?
HORKHEIMER: No not really. The only impact it will have will be on the beauty and the excitement and kind of making you realize a little bit about our wonderful place in this incredible universe and our relationship of our earth with all of the other planets in our sun's family. No real scientific value here, just wonderful, sheer, naked-eye planetary cosmic beauty.
ZAHN: And it's free. So, Susan, for folks who follow their horoscopes, will these planetary alignments over the next six weeks or so have any dramatic impact on what they read in the papers every morning?
SUSAN MILLER, ASTROLOGER: Yes, I think so. I brought a horoscope here, and you see this gathering on the head of a pin. You see this right here? And this is the sign of communication Gemini. It's all going to be in that constellation. Now, it's not -- none of these planets are getting along too well with Uranus here. The new moon isn't. And we need to back up our computers. There could be a computer virus around the middle of May.
Although Dr. Horkheimer mentioned the beginning of May, we need to wait for the new moon to feel this. And these are kind of guests at a wedding, but when the bride appears, the new moon, that's when it's significant. And there is some tension in the Middle East. There will continue to be, especially around Memorial Day, because these planets are not quite getting along, but we need to talk. Gemini is the little talking planet.
ZAHN: Right.
MILLER: And we need to be sure we are communicating clearly, because Mercury will be retrograde. So we just have to say what did you mean by that? Let me sum this up. Did you mean this? That kind of thing, even in our personal lives we need to do that.
ZAHN: I think we would all be well-served to do that more often no matter where these planets are lined up.
MILLER: I think you're right.
ZAHN: Thank you so much for dropping by. Everybody check out your horoscopes for those that do that on a daily basis. And I love this like pinball, pinhead analogy, the dodging planetary. Dr. Jack Horkheimer, great to see you again -- good luck with your show, "Stargazers."
HORKHEIMER: My pleasure -- good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: OK. Thanks again for joining us.
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