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Episode guide

The Sky at Night: 1981

13 episodes · premiered Jan 11, 1981

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The Sky at Night: cast and where to watch

  1. Episode 1: The 200-inch Telescope at Mount Jan 11, 1981 Palomar Patrick Moore visits Mount Palomar in South California to see the great 200-inch telescope, and talks to the scientists who use the largest working telescope in the world.
  2. Episode 2: The Sword of Orion Feb 8, 1981 The Orion nebula is one of the most famous objects in the sky. It is visible with the naked eye as a hazy patch in Orion's sword; small telescopes show it well, but we now know that it is…
  3. Episode 3: Mr Herschel's Planet Mar 8, 1981 Patrick Moore tells the story of William Herschel, the obscure Hanoverian army bandsman whose discovery with a home-made telescope of the planet Uranus doubled the size of the known solar…
  4. Episode 4: The Spring Sky Apr 5, 1981 What can be seen in the night sky this month? Patrick Moore describes the stars which are on view during April; he also shows the latest maps of Saturn's satellites drawn up from Voyager I…
  5. Episode 5: 'In the Beginning.... ' May 3, 1981 In the crystal-clear atmosphere of La Palma in the Canary Islands the new Northern Hemisphere Observatory is being built. This observatory, a joint international project, is designed to…
  6. Episode 6: Neptune - the Mysterious Giant May 31, 1981 Neptune, the outermost of the giant planets, has been known for well over a century, but our knowledge of it is still meagre. With its gaseous surface, its quick rotation and its large…
  7. Episode 7: Bombardment from Space Jun 26, 1981 What are the chances of the Earth being hit by an asteroid - another and much smaller world orbiting the Sun? Just over 40 years ago the Earth was nearly in collision with an asteroid…
  8. Episode 8: The Summer Sky Jul 27, 1981 During summer evenings many interesting constellations are on view. There are also some spectacular double stars, most of them are binary systems in which the components are physically…
  9. Episode 9: The Perseids Aug 23, 1981 Meteors, or shooting stars, space debris shed by comets travelling round the sun, can produce brilliant displays and the Perseids, seen each year between 27 July and 17 August, are…
  10. Episode 10: Voyager 2: A Second Opinion of Saturn Sep 21, 1981 On 25 August the American spacecraft Voyager 2 made its pass of Saturn, and told us more about the unexpectedly complicated ring-system, the surface of the Planet, and the puzzling family…
  11. Episode 11: A Tribute to Sir Bernard Lovell Oct 18, 1981 Three weeks ago Professor Sir Bernard Lovell retired as Director of the radio astronomy observatory at Jodrell Bank, where the 250-foot 'dish' opened up new methods of studying the…
  12. Episode 12: The Autumn Sky Nov 15, 1981 Pegasus, the flying horse, is the main autumn constellation - but do you know where to find it? Can you see Mars now - and if so. where is it? Where should one look for the Great Spiral in…
  13. Episode 13: The Star of Bethlehem Dec 13, 1981 For almost 2,000 years, the Star of Bethlehem has been regarded as a major mystery. What was the Star of Bethlehem? Was it the planet Venus, an exploding star, a comet, or a grouping of…