The Sky at Night: 1971
Season 15 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of The Sky at Night Season 14.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 15 Progress Shield
The Approach of Mars
Jan 13, 1970
Mars has now started to approach the Earth. Later in 1971 it will be as close to us as it can ever come. More Mariner spacecraft will be sent there, and Patrick Moore looks ahead t
Things are Seldom What They Seem
Feb 3, 1971
Our view of the Universe is always out of date! We see the Moon as it was over a second ago, the Sun 81 minutes ago, and remote star systems as they used to be before the Earth was
Sirius, the Dog-Star
Mar 3, 1970
Patrick Moore and Dr Vinicio Barocas discuss this star and its strange companion, a body so dense that one thimbleful of its material would weigh a ton.
A Black Hole in Space?
Apr 1, 1971
Patrick Moore discusses with Professor Samuel Tolansky a startling new theory about an 'invisible' star in the two-star system Epsilon Aurigae. Could this mysterious object be, no
Jupiter - the Other Magnetic Planet
Apr 27, 1971
Only two planets are known to have magnetic fields: the Earth itself, and Jupiter the huge cold outer planet full of mysteries which have puzzled astronomers for centuries. Patric
Orbiting Space-Stations
Jun 8, 1971
The Russian Soyuz flights and America's planned launching of a manned Skylab in 1973 are steps towards the establishment by the 1980s of permanent observatories outside earth's atm
Tracking the Stars
Jun 30, 1971
A telescope must be moved continuously to follow the stars. Patrick Moore uses his own telescopes to show how this is achieved, and visits the observatories of Henry Brinton and C
How Far Are the Stars?
Jul 21, 1971
The nearest star - not counting our own sun, which is a star - is 25 million million miles from us. Patrick Moore uses a school cricket-pitch to show how the distances of the stars
Mars Comes Close
Aug 18, 1971
Mars is at its closest to earth since 1956, and American and Russian probes are on their way to map it and send back scientific information. Patrick Moore discusses with Dr Geoffr
The Life and Death of a Star
Sep 15, 1971
Stars look like simple points of light to the naked eye, but they have complicated lives, evolving from dust and gas and eventually ageing into dense 'white dwarfs.' Patrick Moore
Kepler, Genius and Mystic
Oct 13, 1971
The mathematician and astronomer Johann Kepler was born in 1571. Tonight Patrick Moore discusses with Colin Ronan the importance of Kepler's discoveries.
Mars
Nov 17, 1971
Three spacecraft should reach the red planet this month, the Russian Mars 2 and Mars 3 and the American Mariner 9. Patrick Moore shows the latest photographs from Mariner, and dis
The Royal Observatory Telescope
Dec 7, 1971
A historic telescope recently returned from Herstmonceux to its original home on the roof of the old Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Patrick Moore talked to the Astronomer Royal, Sir