The Sky at Night: 1972
Season 16 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 15.
- 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 16 Progress Shield
The Great Bear
Jan 5, 1972
The Great Bear is the most familiar and conspicuous star-pattern in the night sky all the year round: but it is not exactly what it seems. Patrick Moore explains that, although it
X-Ray Stars
Feb 2, 1972
The first X-ray source far out in space was detected nine years ago. Since then, 100 more have been found. But what are they? Patrick Moore talks to Professor Peter Willmore and D
Mars - A Dynamic World
Mar 1, 1972
Mars could have water and life. This is the astonishing information now coming back from the Mariner 9 orbiting probe. Patrick Moore discusses the evidence in the latest photograp
What Do You Want to Know?
Mar 27, 1972
What is a neutron star? a quasar? a pulsar? a black hole in space? Patrick Moore answers your questions.
Fifteenth Anniversary
Apr 12, 1972
The Sky at Night with Patrick Moore started on 24 April 1957. In tonight's special edition, Patrick Moore looks back, with Commander Henry Hatfield, at the astonishing changes and
The Tenth Planet?
May 24, 1972
Patrick Moore explains why Planet X has been so difficult to detect, and what kind of place this dim, cold world at the limits of our solar system would be.
Midsummer and Megaliths
Jun 21, 1972
How much did our prehistoric ancestors know about the movements of the sun and moon? Patrick Moore is at Stonehenge to watch the midsummer sun rise over the Heel Stone, and to dis
Jupiter - The Colossal Planet
Jul 19, 1972
An unmanned spacecraft, Pioneer F, is on its way to Jupiter, the largest planet in our system and one of the most mysterious. Patrick Moore explains why Jupiter puzzles astronomers
The Andromeda Galaxy
Aug 16, 1972
The Great Spiral in Andromeda is one of the most spectacular objects known to astronomers. Patrick Moore describes our nearest galactic neighbour and other galaxies in our 'local
An Exploded Planet?
Sep 18, 1972
There may once have been in the solar system an extra planet, destroyed in the remote past and producing the fragments we now know as asteroids. Patrick Moore talks about the 'mis
Mars
Oct 2, 1972
New information about Mars is being received from the American space-probe Mariner 9. Patrick Moore and Arthur Cross talk about what this means, and show some of the new charts of
Collapsing Stars
Oct 30, 1972
Are there such things as 'black holes in space' - old stars which have collapsed in on themselves and lost their light? Patrick Moore discusses with Professor Samuel Tolansky, FRS
Tycho's Star
Dec 4, 1972
Four hundred years ago this month, the famous astronomer Tycho Brahe saw a brilliant new star blaze overhead near the 'W' of Cassiopeia. This was a supernova, one of only three in