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Patrick Moore focuses on the planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, identifying points of interests about these remote members of the solar system.

A look back at a special programme marking the 25th anniversary of The Sky at Night. Patrick Moore reports on what is happening at great observatories all over the world.

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July 4th 2005 a small copper impactor from the NASA Deep Impact spacecraft was released in the path of Comet Tempel 1, causing a collision that released fresh ice and dust, allowing astronomers for the first time to study pristine material from the formation of our solar system. Sir Patrick Moore is joined by leading comet experts who describe the science and importance of this historic achievement. While co-host Chris Lintott interviews British astronomer Richard Ellis at Palomar Mountain, California who is in charge of the observatory where professional astronomers using the historic Hale 200-inch telescope, and a team of amateur astronomers including Scott Roberts, Tony Cook, Russ and Stephanie Tanton, Dan Dickerson, John Downs, Mike West, and others who visually and photographically witnessed the actual point of impact.

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Patrick talks to Mike A'Hearn, the NASA scientist behind the Deep Impact mission.

A look at Hawaii's Mauna Kea observatories; Chris looks at the telescopes, while Patrick talks to British scientists who use them.

Patrick Moore presents a guide to the most familiar body in the night sky, whilst Chris Lintott gives tips on how to observe the moon.

Tips on finding Saturn; Patrick talks to Prof John Zarnecki about the latest from the Cassini mission.

Patrick Moore offers advice on how to observe the sun and its many brilliant features. Chris Lintott demonstrates how to split light into a spectrum.

On 29 March, a total eclipse of the Sun passes over Antalya in Turkey. Patrick hopes for a glimpse of the partial eclipse to be seen from the UK.

How galaxies are formed.

Discussing gamma-rays that the spacecraft Swift has shown are far more varied than at first thought. Chris Lintott also tracks down the supernovae hunters.

Uranus and Neptune, which four billion years ago were much closer to the Sun, regularly swap orbits. Chris lintott takes a closer look at Jupiter.

UK scientists hope to find Martian life with the innovative 'life marker chip'; Chris lintott goes in search of the rover that will climb Martian mountains.

SMART-1 project scientist Bernard Foing on the spacecraft's pioneering technology; Chris looks at the STEREO and Solar-B missions to the Sun.

What to look for over the next few months; Lucie Green visits the Autumn Equinox star party at Kelling Heath; Chris talks to cosmologist Jim Gunn.

The latest findings of Venus Express, currently scrutinising Earth's 'evil twin' Venus, known for its searing temperatures.

Patrick finds out how scientists are making sounds and music from the changes within stars. Chris Lintott looks at variable stars.

British astronaut Piers Sellers on orbiting the Earth and the future of the manned space programme; NASA's upcoming Hubble rescue mission.

Celebrating the success of Martian rovers Spirit and Opportunity; NASA's Phoenix mission; Lucie Green visits the ExoMars rover in Aberystwyth.

Chris shows us how to see Saturn with a small telescope, while Patrick finds out the latest from the Cassini mission currently orbiting the planet.

Celebrating 50 years of The Sky at Night, Patrick 'travelled' back to the show's first ever recording in 1957. The episode then jumped forward to 2057 where the 'virtual' Patrick talked to Dr Chris Lintott and Dr Brian May on Mars. Jon Culshaw's turn as a younger Patrick was uncanny as he recreated Patrick's first words on The Sky at Night.

The Sky at Night 50th birthday party. Patrick reflects on how astronomy has changed over the last half century, with amusing clips from the archives.

Patrick learns more about the exciting discovery of a planet that seems similar to Earth.

Patrick looks at the summer constellation Scorpius, and the black hole lurking at the centre of the Galaxy.

A look at Robonet, the robotic network of telescopes spanning the globe, able to react to cosmic phenomena such as gamma-ray bursts at any time.

Patrick uses magic to explain the mysteries of the Universe.

A look back at the completion of the world's largest steerable radio telescope in 1957, just in time to pick up the signal from Sputnik.

Patrick anticipates the cataclysmic day, in two billion years, when our Milky Way will collide with Andromeda, and the role dark matter will play.

In his garden, Patrick Moore is joined by Dr Brian May and Jon Culshaw to watch the cosmic firework display known as the Perseid meteor shower.

Dr Chris Lintott finds out how British technology is leading the way in satellite science, while Sir Patrick Moore investigates the threat from space debris that astronauts face in space.

On 14th December 1972, Captain Eugene Cernan left the Moon to return to Earth. He had no idea that, 25 years later, he would still be the last man to have left his footprints on the lunar surface. Dr Chris Lintott travels to the Johnson Space Centre to talk to the Commander of Apollo 17 about his memories of being on the Moon. Sir Patrick Moore looks at lunar samples brought back by the astronauts and talks to NASA scientists about what they discovered.

Patrick Moore presents a retrospective of five decades of The Sky ay Night, recalling the history of space exploration from the first Russian Sputnik, the major astronomical discoveries over half a century, and the people he has met, from Orville Wright to Neil Armstrong.

Patrick Moore investigates comet tails, meteorites and asteroids and discovers the terrible consequences of a cosmic collision with the Earth.

Mercury is a world of extremes and enigmas - the closest one to the Sun. The spacecraft Messenger, which has just reached it after a four year journey, now offers enthralling pictures of its hidden side, which has never been seen before. Sir Patrick Moore looks at the latest images from this exciting mission, while Dr Chris Lintott looks forward to the lunar eclipse this month.

With a new era of lunar exploration dawning as more probes are launched to try to unlock the Moon's darkest secrets, Patrick Moore finds out about British ambitions to get there. Dr Chris Lintott travels to NASA to hear about plans to blast a crater in the lunar surface and and meets the astronauts who may be the next men on the Moon.

It's the start of a new solar cycle, and the spacecraft Ulysses faces retirement, but solar missions Stereo and SOHO are still revealing our nearest star in a new light.

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The world of astronomy. Gamma ray bursts are some of the largest explosions in the universe, and Sir Patrick Moore discovers how some of these monstrous events mark the spectacular deaths of the first stars.

Also, Dr Chris Lintott visits the NASA Phoenix team fo find out the latest from the Mars Polar explorer.

Patrick Moore wonders if there is life beyond Earth, and Chris Lintott visits SETI.

This first Sky at Night of 2009 is a celebration of the humble (and Hubble) telescope, which is now 400 years old. It all began with Galileo . . . or did it? Patrick Moore furrows his brow over the news that an Englishman may have invented the first. Over the last 50 years Patrick has visited almost all of the worlds large telescopes, and there is some archive footage of some of these visits.

Meanwhile, Chris Lintott visits some mighty examples in the USA, and astronaut Jeff Hoffman describes how he repaired the Hubble Space Telescope. Preparations are underway in NASA's watertanks for the next repair/update mission, which NASA hopes to be the last, because the next space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to succeed it.

In a unique visite we get to see how 10m glass mirrors are cast and polished under the Arizona Wildcats Football stadium, and talks about the future of Extremely Large Telescopes.

Dr Chris Lintott travels to a radar facility in Norway to see the Aurora Borealis.

Saturn's mysterious moon Enceladus has startled astronomers with its amazing ice geysers, which spew out material into space. Sir Patrick Moore talks to the scientists who are trying to unlock the secrets of this tiny world.

Dr Chris Lintott visits the Open University to find out the latest on our own Moon. He meets scientists from the Japanese Kaguya mission and the Indian Chandrayaan mission, with its British instrument CIXS.

Patrick Moore discusses what Herschel, Europe's biggest and most expensive space satellite, will do once it begins its infrared exploration of the universe.

Dr Chris Lintott gets a rare chance to see the Herschel mirror, which at 3.5 metres will be the biggest astronomical mirror ever to be sent into space.

Every day, asteroids whiz past the Earth on their journey through space. Sir Patrick Moore discusses the chances of a close encounter with an asteroid, after telescopes recently got a unique view of an asteroid disintegrating in our atmosphere.

Containing trillions of stars, Andromeda is the largest galaxy in our neighbourhood. It is 2.5 million light years away, yet is still visible to the naked eye. Sir Patrick Moore and his guests unravel some of the mysteries in the star systems that surround us and look at the latest discoveries from our local galaxies.

Using archive sound, satellite footage and film taken by the astronauts, Patrick Moore presents the story of mankind's first journey to another world. The task of telling Apollo 11’s story from a British angle is a challenging one, since most of the domestic television presentation was not saved for the archives. However, Apollo 11, A Night to Remember, part of BBC Four’s Moon Night, has knitted together the remaining material into an effective two-hour documentary. Satellite pictures have been married up with amateur audio recordings, and linked with rarely-seen reports, background films, a couple of rediscovered studio clips, and some new explanatory pieces by Sir Patrick Moore, one of the presenters in 1969. The satellite images, which form the bulk of the programme, cover the main events in America, in the spacecraft, and on the moon. The source tapes are the BBC’s original 525-to-625 line live electronic standards conversions, but because they are derived from an international signal feed, they are lacking the domestic commentary and captions. However, it has been possible to reinstate much of the commentary from amateur off-air recordings, and thereby restore parts of the BBC’s television coverage. This technique has been applied in previous moon landing documentaries, but here it is used much more extensively than before, greatly enhancing the experience. The sound quality of the amateur recordings is not brilliant; usually it is perfectly intelligible, but occasionally becomes indistinct against all the interference from the space communications. A highlight of the programme comes near the start, when we can savour lengthy sections of what must be one of British television’s most compelling commentaries, as Michael Chartlon dramatically sets the scene at Cape Kennedy’s launch site, then guides us through the last 6 minutes of countdown. There are several technical glitches resulting from a poorish satellite link but these do not detract from the occasion. (Wobbly pictures from Cape Kennedy’s control room appear also on NASA’s recordings, so must have another cause.) The launch build-up also features James Burke demonstrating the rocket tower escape procedure, the first of several entertaining, but seldom-seen, colour film items that were played into the live programmes. The Burke / Moore Apollo 11 studio presentation, long thought to be totally missing from the archives, has acquired for itself a certain mystique, and a place among the top ten missing programmes. But now, perhaps for the first time since 1969, we can glimpse one of these famous broadcasts, made on 16th July 1969, as James Burke reviews the launch earlier that day. The minute-long clip, taken from BBC1’s Twenty-Four Hours current affairs programme, is a high quality, 625-line black-and-white video recording. The second of the recovered studio clips, 20-seconds long, is of much poorer technical quality than the first, and appears to be from an amateur recording. It shows Burke signing off for the night after a broadcast probably made in the early hours of Saturday 20th July 1969 (the days of the week are incorrect in the documentary). Michael Charlton’s contributions from Houston seem to have fared better in the archives than those of his London colleagues, and here we can view two examples: an interview with NASA’s George Hage shortly before the critical lunar orbit insertion manoeuvre on 19th July 1969, and a report to camera at 2am on 21st July 1969, about two hours before Armstrong steps onto the moon. It is hard to know why this colour material has been hidden away for so long, (although a very short Charlton snippet did appear in the film The Dish a few years ago). Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins made several telecasts live from the spacecraft on their outward and homeward journeys. Excerpts of these appear frequently in documentaries, but now we can gain a better insight, thanks to the inclusion of greatly extended sections, taken for the most part from video recordings, which tend to preserve the “live” feel of an event compared to film recordings. On fast-moving shots, you can sometimes see colour fringing caused by the Apollo TV camera’s mechanical system of colour encoding. Despite their blurred appearance, lingering shots of the barren moonscape, televised from the orbiting spacecraft the day before touchdown, are remarkable images, which benefit from being shown at length. The reinstated BBC commentary that accompanies them is a 3-way, transatlantic hook-up from Burke, Moore and Charlton. These lunar sequences, and the earlier telecast from Apollo, were carried live in colour by the BBC, although most people would have been viewing in black-and-white. As made clear in the narration, the programme sometimes departs from the live coverage seen in 1969. And so, for example, during Eagle’s descent to the moon’s surface, pictures from Houston are interwoven with clear extracts from the astronauts’ well-known LEM film. On the whole, this approach is used judiciously, even if it is not the authentic television experience. For reasons explained already, the scenes following lunar touchdown are without the striking captions originally seen by BBC viewers (e.g. “Americans on the Moon. Apollo 11 touched down 9.18”) but, as elsewhere, they have been reunited with James Burke’s comments. At mission control, we can pick out the commander going through his stay/no stay routine shortly after the landing. A long compilation of the actual moonwalk covers the major events on the lunar surface, including in full President Nixon’s “most historic telephone call ever made” to Armstrong and Aldrin. The president is shown inset in colour, though the live broadcast of this was in monochrome only. A strobing effect in some of the scenes is caused by the slow scan lunar camera signal, which required optical conversion to translate it to broadcast standards. One of the most dramatic parts of the mission, the fiery return to Earth, is a curious omission, and the splashdown features only briefly over the closing credits. Nonetheless, Apollo 11, A Night to Remember has given us our clearest understanding since 1969 of how British television covered the historic first moon landing mission, plus the hope that more missing footage might eventually be recovered.

Using archive sound, satellite footage and film taken by the astronauts, Patrick Moore presents the story of mankind's first journey to another world.

The task of telling Apollo 11’s story from a British angle is a challenging one, since most of the domestic television presentation was not saved for the archives. However, Apollo 11, A Night to Remember, part of BBC Four’s Moon Night, has knitted together the remaining material into an effective two-hour documentary. Satellite pictures have been married up with amateur audio recordings, and linked with rarely-seen reports, background films, a couple of rediscovered studio clips, and some new explanatory pieces by Sir Patrick Moore, one of the presenters in 1969.

The satellite images, which form the bulk of the programme, cover the main events in America, in the spacecraft, and on the moon. The source tapes are the BBC’s original 525-to-625 line live electronic standards conversions, but because they are derived from an international signal feed, they are lacking the domestic commentary and captions. However, it has been possible to reinstate much of the commentary from amateur off-air recordings, and thereby restore parts of the BBC’s television coverage. This technique has been applied in previous moon landing documentaries, but here it is used much more extensively than before, greatly enhancing the experience. The sound quality of the amateur recordings is not brilliant; usually it is perfectly intelligible, but occasionally becomes indistinct against all the interference from the space communications.

A highlight of the programme comes near the start, when we can savour lengthy sections of what must be one of British television’s most compelling commentaries, as Michael Chartlon dramatically sets the scene at Cape Kennedy’s launch site, then guides us through the last 6 minutes of countdown.

There are several technical glitches resulting from a poorish satellite link but these do not detract from the occasion. (Wobbly pictures from Cape Kennedy’s control room appear also on NASA’s recordings, so must have another cause.) The launch build-up also features James Burke demonstrating the rocket tower escape procedure, the first of several entertaining, but seldom-seen, colour film items that were played into the live programmes.

The Burke / Moore Apollo 11 studio presentation, long thought to be totally missing from the archives, has acquired for itself a certain mystique, and a place among the top ten missing programmes. But now, perhaps for the first time since 1969, we can glimpse one of these famous broadcasts, made on 16th July 1969, as James Burke reviews the launch earlier that day. The minute-long clip, taken from BBC1’s Twenty-Four Hours current affairs programme, is a high quality, 625-line black-and-white video recording.

The second of the recovered studio clips, 20-seconds long, is of much poorer technical quality than the first, and appears to be from an amateur recording. It shows Burke signing off for the night after a broadcast probably made in the early hours of Saturday 20th July 1969 (the days of the week are incorrect in the documentary).

Michael Charlton’s contributions from Houston seem to have fared better in the archives than those of his London colleagues, and here we can view two examples: an interview with NASA’s George Hage shortly before the critical lunar orbit insertion manoeuvre on 19th July 1969, and a report to camera at 2am on 21st July 1969, about two hours before Armstrong steps onto the moon. It is hard to know why this colour material has been hidden away for so long, (although a very short Charlton snippet did appear in the film The Dish a few years ago).

Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins made several telecasts live from the spacecraft on their outward and homeward journeys. Excerpts of these appear frequently in documentaries, but now we can gain a better insight, thanks to the inclusion of greatly extended sections, taken for the...

Patrick Moore presents a guide to the most familiar body in the night sky, whilst Chris Lintott gives tips on how to observe the moon.

Forty years on, Patrick Moore and guests discuss the achievements of the Apollo programme.

On 14th December 1972, Captain Eugene Cernan left the Moon to return to Earth. He had no idea that, 25 years later, he would still be the last man to have left his footprints on the lunar surface. Dr Chris Lintott travels to the Johnson Space Centre to talk to the Commander of Apollo 17 about his memories of being on the Moon. Sir Patrick Moore looks at lunar samples brought back by the astronauts and talks to NASA scientists about what they discovered.

Sir Patrick Moore, with the help of Pete Lawrence and the latest pictures, investigates the longest total eclipse of the sun for many years, which took place in India and China in July 2009.

In orbit around Saturn, the Cassini probe has sent back amazing new images, and there's a new discovery on the moon Enceladus. Chris Lintott reports from the latest Cassini conference in London and finds out why there is a sprinkling of table salt in the rings of Saturn.

In July 2009, a mysterious large object crashed into Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, leaving behind a scar in the gas cloud the size of the Earth. Sir Patrick Moore examines this new feature with Jupiter experts John Rogers and David Rothery. Imaging experts Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel compete to capture the best images of the gas giant, while Chris Lintott has this month's news notes.

Following the Hubble space telescope's overhaul, Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott examine its latest findings and the data from NASA's other telescopes, Spitzer and Chandra. Pete Lawrence observes the spiral galaxies M31 and M33 and explains how they owe their enigmatic names to an 18th-century French comet hunter.

Observers now know there is water on the Moon, but how much? NASA's new LCROSS probe into the lunar surface will find out. Chris Lintott visits the Palomar observatory in California to witness the probe's impact, while Patrick Moore views it with friends from his home in Selsey. Can the Moon really support life?

For centuries, astronomers, writers and philosophers have speculated about life on the planet Mars, but we have learned more about our near neighbour in the last 30 years than at any time in human history. Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott explore the Red Planet.

Winter is approaching and, with longer nights, it is the perfect time to get outside to enjoy the wonders of the night sky. Sir Patrick Moore is joined by Dr Chris Lintott and Pete Lawrence, plus a host of stargazers searching for the best the winter skies have to offer.

January provides the perfect opportunity to observe stars, planets and galaxies.

Sir Patrick Moore takes us on a tour of the winter sky, looking at twinkling 'variable stars' with Dr John Mason, and at planets and galaxies with Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel.

Sir Patrick and Dr Chris Lintott also point out the best objects to observe if you've had a telescope for Christmas.

Mars is the brightest thing in the sky and is at its closest to Earth for the next four years. With NASA announcing that its Martian rover Spirit is to rove no more on the red planet, there is an interview with Prof Steve Squyres, the principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, about the attempts to get it out of the sand dune which ensnared it in May 2009 and the agonising decision to stop the rescue.

Half a century ago, scientists were speculating about the possibility of planets outside our solar system. Since then over 400 such extra-solar planets have been discovered. Is there anything living on them and if so, is it intelligent? Sir Patrick Moore debates the question of life in the universe with today's planet hunters and astrobiologists, while at the Royal Society Dr Chris Lintott searches for evidence of alien life.

We can never see our nearest star at night, only by day. Looking at it directly will blind us - because our nearest star is the Sun. Sir Patrick Moore is joined by the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Professor John Brown and by Dr Chris Davis. They take us on a tour of the Sun, Earth's primary source of energy and without which life would not exist. Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel demonstrate safe ways to look at the Sun from Sir Patrick's observatory in Sussex.

Saturn is one of the largest planets and the beautiful system of rings surrounding it makes it the most distinctive in the solar system. But how were the rings formed and what effect do Saturn's many moons have upon them? Sir Patrick Moore is joined by Professor Michele Dougherty and Professor Carl Murray, while Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel demonstrate the best way to observe Saturn during May.

The many star-forming areas of our galaxy are obscured by interstellar dust, but Herschel, a new space telescope, can see these areas in infrared light. Sir Patrick Moore is joined by Professor Derek Ward-Thompson and Dr Chris North to examine the latest stunning images from Herschel.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis has returned from its final flight to the International Space Station. With the shuttle fleet soon to be decommissioned, Sir Patrick Moore and Dr Chris Lintott meet the crew of Atlantis to talk about the future of spaceflight, the legacy of the Space Shuttle - and how to prepare to go into space.

The team look at the discovery of the brightest and most massive star to date.

In July 2009 a large object crashed into Jupiter, and in May 2010 one of the most prominent features of the planet, the southern equatorial belt, disappeared. But where did it go? Sir Patrick Moore is joined by Dr John Rogers and Dr Leigh Fletcher to discuss the latest events on Jupiter. Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel observe the planet and explain what features can be seen through a telescope.

Light echoes are reflections of light from distant objects in space. But what do they look like and how can they best be seen? Sir Patrick Moore and his guests Professor Mike Bode and Dr Tim O'Brien explain all.

Chris Lintott helps to construct a new radio telescope in Hampshire while Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel preview what is on view in the October skies.

Comets are strange and exotic objects, the remnants from dead stars and the birth pangs of our solar system. Only a handful of these ghostly, celestial objects have been seen at close quarters. Sir Patrick Moore discusses NASA's EPOXI mission, which hopes to rendezvous with comet Hartley 2.

Ursa Major, the Great Bear, is a rich source of galaxies, double and variable stars and the Hubble Deep Field, through which we are able to look back 10 billion years in time. Sir Patrick Moore and his astronomical team give an intimate guide to one of the skies' most recognisable constellations.

The planets and moons of our solar system are covered in volcanoes, some billions of years old and seven times the height of Mount Everest. Sir Patrick Moore discovers the havoc that volcanoes can wreak on our own planet, as well as elsewhere in our solar system.

The great winter constellation of Orion is easily visible, with its ruby red star Betelgeuse and distinctive shape. It is also home to the Orion nebula, our nearest stellar nursery, where thousands of stars are being born. Sir Patrick Moore and the Sky at Night team take us on a tour of this magnificent constellation and its jewels.

Sir Patrick Moore celebrates the 700th episode of The Sky at Night at his home in Sussex, with the help of special guests Professor Brian Cox, impressionist and amateur astronomer Jon Culshaw and Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal. A stellar panel of astronomers gathers to answer vexing questions from the viewers, while Sir Patrick has a close encounter with his younger self.

Sir Patrick Moore joins an unlikely star party in the heart of London, where enthusiastic astronomers are cutting through the light pollution to see the planets and stars. Dr Chris Lintott also drops in on another star party - the 88th birthday celebrations for the nation's most famous astronomer.

In the atmosphere of Saturn there is a gigantic storm, which is bigger than Earth itself. This month Sir Patrick Moore looks at the ringed planet, which can be seen in our night sky now. He talks to Paul Abel and Dr Chris North about these violent eruptions in the atmospheres of other worlds.

And Jon Culshaw, Dr Lucie Green and Pete Lawrence travel to north Norway in search of the aurora borealis.

The summer constellation of Cygnus will soon be flying overhead in our night sky. With its rich array of nebulae and star clusters, it is a delight for astronomers to look at in the warm summer evenings. Sir Patrick Moore looks at the yellow star Albireo with its superb azure blue companion, while Chris North goes in search of the Milky Way.

Sir Patrick Moore visits the South Downs Planetarium and discovers how the stars appeared to the ancient Egyptians, whilst Pete Lawrence explains what to look out for in the summer night sky.

The NASA spacecraft Dawn is getting up close and personal with the asteroid Vesta. Sir Patrick Moore discusses the first fly-by images of this most unusual asteroid, which will tell us more about how our solar system formed some 4.5 billion years ago. Paul Abel and Pete Lawrence their guide to the August night sky, including the return of the red planet Mars.

The future of manned space flight is entering an uncertain phase, with our once vivid dreams of returning to the Moon and landing on Mars shattered by budget cuts and lack of will. Sir Patrick Moore discusses the demise of the shuttle programme with astronaut Piers Sellers, and also goes on an interstellar journey with Project Icarus, the visionary idea of how man might one day visit other worlds.

Two of the great autumn constellations of Andromeda and Pegasus will soon be gracing our night skies. The maiden Andromeda, chained to her rock, awaits her fate whilst the winged horse Pegasus gallops across the celestial skies. Full of interesting stars, nebulae and galaxies, these constellations are rich pickings for astronomers.

As Mars returns to our night skies, Sir Patrick Moore discusses its four faces. Dr Chris Lintott travels to a world gathering of planetary scientists in Nantes to find out about the NASA mission Curiosity, which will soon leave for the red planet in search of signs of life.

The outer limits of the solar system are a dark, cold and mysterious place, which only the Voyager spacecraft have visited. Sir Patrick Moore discusses the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, while Chris Lintott has an early Christmas treat - a lost episode of The Sky at Night from 1963 which has been returned to the BBC, in which Arthur C Clarke talks about his vision of bases on the moon and speculates when man will be on Mars.

We now know there are other solar systems far away in space, but are they like ours and is there life on these strange worlds? Sir Patrick Moore goes on the quest for little green men.

Space telescopes such as Herschel and Spitzer are peering at the dusty, dark cosmos and with their infrared eyes they can see the cold parts of the sky where stars are being born. Sir Patrick Moore discusses why the infrared is full of hidden delights, whilst Dr Chris North talks to Dr Amy Mainzer about NASA's infrared WISE telescope.

A look at how amateur astronomers can help in the quest for knowledge of the cosmos.

Have you ever dreamed of travelling through space? Sir Patrick Moore takes us on an epic journey to the ends of our known universe, stopping en-route to take in the view. The team engage the warp drive and celebrate 55 years of The Sky at Night - at the speed of light.

The Sky at Night celebrates 55 years with the second of its special programmes. Sir Patrick picked out 55 objects in the April sky and asked viewers to take part in his Moore Marathon. He finds out how everyone got on, with help from the team.

A European mission called JUICE has been announced which will visit Jupiter and its fascinating moons Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. Sir Patrick Moore finds out why these icy moons may harbour conditions suitable for life, and also has the latest news from the Cassini mission, currently sending back astounding images from Saturn.

The Sky at Night travels to the Arctic Circle and the archipelago of Svalbard to see the transit of Venus. This astronomical wonder, where the planet Venus passes in front of the sun, is the last one in our lifetime, but as ever the clouds test the team's nerves.

Up and down the country amateur astronomers are out in their back-garden observatories looking at stars, galaxies and nebulae. The team visits some astronomers on their own turf, to find out what keeps them up late at night.

The NASA rover, Curiosity, the size of a small car and nuclear-powered, landed on Mars in August and took its first view of the red planet. This ambitious mission hopes to find the building blocks of life as well as study the Martian climate and geology. Sir Patrick Moore discusses what Curiosity will be doing, as well as what to see in the September night sky.

Sir Patrick Moore selects celestial objects to observe in the winter night sky and challenges viewers to spot as many as possible. In the second part of the year's Moore Marathon, Sir Patrick has selected two lists to suit astronomers of all abilities - objects that can be seen with the naked eye or binoculars, and more remote ones observable only by telescope.

Sir Patrick Moore, Dr Chris Lintott and Dr Chris North find out what the universe is made of, from the 'dark matter' that shapes our galaxies to the infinitesimally small particles that make up atoms. Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel show how to use a planisphere as a guide to the night sky and what objects can be ticked off on the 'Moore Winter Marathon'.

The tiny planet Mercury is in the morning sky and Sir Patrick Moore talks about the latest news from Messenger, the spacecraft which is over Mercury at the moment. Mercury is often compared to the moon, which was last visited by man in December 1972. Forty years on, Dr Chris Lintott looks at the legacy of that mission, Apollo 17, and what it has been able to tell us about the moon.

For more than half a century Sir Patrick Moore encouraged people to look up at the wonders of the night skies. Fittingly in this programme, recorded just before his death, he and his team offer advice to those who are discovering astronomy for the very first time. How should they set up their new telescopes and what should they seek out in the winter skies as they begin to share Sir Patrick's lifelong passion for the stars?

The team are at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, to see how the sun affects our planet.

There are amazing astronomical objects to see in the winter night sky, and Sir Patrick Moore chose a few of them for his last Moore Winter Marathon. To find out how everyone got on, Chris Lintott and Lucie Green travel to the Kielder observatory in Northumberland to enjoy some of the darkest skies in Britain. Jon Culshaw joins them to take part in Patrick's final challenge, and the rest of the team set up their telescopes to try to catch an asteroid which is about to whizz past the Earth, closer than any before.

Meteorites regularly hit Earth, although most go undetected. Occasionally a big meteorite collides with Earth and when it does, it can cause devastation. Lucie Green and Chris Lintott visit the Natural History Museum to look at its meteorite collection and discuss the recent Russian impact. Jon Culshaw goes on a meteorite hunt, while Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel give their beginners' guide on how to look at Saturn.

Saturn is in our evening skies, and in any telescope looks a stunner. Lucie Green and Chris Lintott investigate the storm that is still raging in the planet's atmosphere, with the latest news from Saturn's amazing moons Titan and Enceladus.

Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel illustrate Saturn's 'opposition effect' and look at some globular clusters, whilst Chris North gets a preview of the new eye-in-the-sky camera, soon to be fitted onto the International Space Station, which will image Earth in incredible detail.

Stars are full of variety - they can be big or little, bright or dim. Our sun is right in the middle - Mr Average - but eventually it will grow old and become a red giant. Lucie Green and Chris Lintott discuss the lives of stars and what happens to them when they die.

Every year thousands flock to Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice. Seeing the rise of the summer sun at Stonehenge is one of the most obvious connections between ancient man and the celestial calendar, but there is still fierce debate about possible links between this ancient site and the moon and stars. The team join in the solstice revelry and also launch the Moore Moon Marathon, with some easy things to look at on the moon over summer.

It's a golden era of exploration on Mars, with Nasa's space rover Curiosity finding out new and exciting things about the planet and which might offer the best chance of life elsewhere in our solar system. The spacecraft Mars Express is also celebrating a decade at the red planet and Chris Lintott and Lucie Green pick out some of the highlights, including the 'face of Mars'. Meanwhile Jon Culshaw explores the Moore Moon Marathon with astronomers in Chipping Norton.

Black holes are the beating heart of galaxies. It seems that they are pivotal in their evolution, but they also have a destructive side. A dust cloud more massive than the size of the Earth is on a doomed course, as it careers towards the black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Chris Lintott talks to the Astronomer Royal about this cataclysmic encounter.

The team go camping at the Brecon Beacons star party and answer problems and queries about what to see in the night sky and how to use a telescope. Viewers have been sending in astronomy questions in the hundreds since the Space Surgery was launched six months ago.

The moon is a most familiar sight in our sky - it is the astronomer's friend and was Sir Patrick Moore's favourite object - yet fundamentally we still do not know how it was formed and why its far side looks so different.

The team join astronomers on Blackheath to watch a lunar eclipse; find out how everyone got in the Moore Moon Marathon, the list of fascinating features you can see on the moon; and discuss the new missions that will explore this reassuringly familiar yet still most mysterious of cosmic satellites

Astronomers always get excited about comets and in December they are looking forward to something rather special. The snappily-named Comet C/2012 S1 ISON has travelled from the very edges of our solar system on a one way ticket around the sun. As it heats up there is intense speculation about whether it will develop a beautiful tail or just break apart. On the Canary island of La Palma the team use both the Liverpool and Issac Newton telescopes to go comet chasing.

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The planets have fascinated us for millennia, but over the past 60 years our understanding of them has been transformed. Using The Sky at Night archives, Maggie Aderin-Pocock takes us on a spectacular voyage of discovery through our exploration of the planets. From incredible technological achievements, to astonishing phenomena such as epic storms on Jupiter and the stunningly complex rings of Saturn, this is the definitive guide to the planets. And the journey doesn't end at the edges of our solar system. We're now discovering that the Milky Way is full of weird and wonderful exoplanets outside our own solar system. Yet the more we learn, the more we discover how special our own planet really is.

Galaxies are the building blocks of the universe. Our solar system sits inside a huge galaxy that we call the Milky Way - home to as many as 300 billion stars. But the Milky Way is itself just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable universe. Over the last 60 years of broadcasting, the Sky at Night has covered every major story of discovery about the galaxies, and in this film presenter Chris Lintott uses this archive to reveal the deepest secrets of galaxies, from their earliest beginnings to their very ends. From the first galaxy ever discovered through to today's cutting edge attempts to map our own Milky Way, this is a story of incredible ingenuity, extraordinary technology and spectacular discoveries. We'll discover how galaxies work - from the secrets of their spiral arms to the dramatic events that drive their evolution - uncovering a weird and wonderful menagerie of objects along the way. Ultimately, the discovery of the galaxies is also the story of how we found our place in the cosmos, and discovered answers to some of the biggest questions in the Universe.

Chris Lintott opens up The Sky at Night's 60-year archive to reveal how stars work, their life cycles and how their own demise holds the key to our very existence.