The winter stars are more brilliant than those of any other season. Patrick Moore talks about these stars and gives the latest news about developments at the new observatory in La Palma and about the approach of Halley's Comet.
A week ago IRAS, the Infra-red Astronomical Satellite, was launched and is now orbiting the Earth. It will provide new information about objects ranging from super-giant stars, to the mysterious centre of our Galaxy.
Mauna Kea, in the Hawaiian Islands, is almost 14,000 feet high. At its summit the air is thin and the skies are clear - which is why some of the world's largest telescopes have been set up there. Patrick Moore pays it a visit.
A mile below the Black Hills of Dakota lies a huge tank of cleaning fluid deep inside a gold mine - the world's strangest observatory. It is designed to collect neutrinos sent out by the sun. But what do we really know about the sun?
The stars are many millions of miles away and appear only as specks of light. Until recently it had been impossible to see any details of the stars. But due to a new technique called 'speckle interferometry' new results can bee seen.
Two rocket probes, Pioneers 10 and 11, are on their way out of the solar system. They are sending back new information about the heliosphere, that part of space in which the influence of the sun is dominant.
Vega has been known to astronomers for centuries. Astronomers thought they knew most things about this brilliant blue star. But Vega has been keeping a secret. It is surrounded by a planetary system in the early stages of development.
In 1917 astronomy entered a new era. The 100-inch reflecting telescope on Mount Wilson in California was completed. It was far more powerful than any existing telescope, and soon led to the discovery that we live in an expanding universe.
IRAS, the infra-red astronomical satellite, is proving to be one of the most successful of all space missions. Already it has carried out an all-sky survey in infra-red, discovering hundreds of thousands of new infra-red sources.
Black holes are almost certainly the most bizarre objects known. They can't be seen but they betray their presence by their effects upon normal stars. For the first time, there has been an opportunity to weigh one of these strange objects.
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By what name was The Sky at Night (1957) officially released in Canada in English?