Episode guide

The Sky at Night: 1977

13 episodes · first aired Jan 17, 1977

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1 Sirius, the Dog-Star Jan 17, 1977 Sirius is now at its best in the evening sky. It is one of our nearest stellar neighbours, and is much more luminous than the sun. It seems to flash all colours but is really a white star…
2 Travel in Space and Time Feb 17, 1977 How big is the universe - and does it have a boundary? Distances on the astronomer's scale are very hard to appreciate. Patrick Moore and Dr Ron Maddison discuss them in this programme…
3 The Mapping of Mercury Mar 16, 1977 First detailed photographs of Mercury, the innermost planet, were obtained by the American space-probe Mariner 10. Maps of Mercury have been drawn from these photographs by Arthur Cross…
4 Celebrates its 20th anniversary Apr 20, 1977 In April 1957 The Sky at Night began. It could not have started at a better time; within months the Space Age opened, with the launch of Sputnik 1, and over the next few years astronomy…
5 The Solar Cycle May 18, 1977 Sunspots are known to increase and decrease over an 11-year cycle. We have just passed through a period of minimum solar activity and the sun-spots should now be increasing, but are slow…
6 Uranus - the Second Ringed Planet? Jun 15, 1977 For centuries the ringed planet Saturn has been regarded as unique. This year the startling discovery has been reported that Uranus also has a system of rings - though as yet they have not…
7 The New Infra-red Telescope Jul 20, 1977 This month an important new British telescope has been completed. It is destined to be set up in Hawaii, and it is not an ordinary telescope; it is designed to study infra-red radiation…
8 The Swan in the Sky Aug 10, 1977 Cygnus, the Swan, is one of the most beautiful of the constellations, and it contains some spectacular objects, including the very luminous Deneb - a star at least 10,000 times more…
9 The Voyager Missions Sep 7, 1977 The two Voyager probes to the outer planets are probably the most ambitious of all automatic space-craft launched up to the present time. They should send back important new information…
10 Stars of the Far South Sep 28, 1977 How many people living in Britain have seen the Southern Cross? It never rises over Europe, but it is a familiar sight to those who live in the Southern Hemisphere. The stars of the far…
11 The Amateur Astronomer Oct 24, 1977 Astronomy is still one of the few sciences in which the amateur can play a useful part. Paul Doherty , who specialises in planetary observations, is an amateur astronomer who has built his…
12 Why Do the Planets Shine? Nov 23, 1977 All the bright planets are now visible in the early morning sky. Some of them seem to outshine the stars, and yet they have no light of their own. They shine only by reflecting the light…
13 Suns, Space-ships, and Bug-eyed Monsters Dec 14, 1977 Ever since the days of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, science fiction and space exploration have been closely linked, and over the last 100 years science fiction has often become science…