The Sky at Night: 1977
Season 21 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 20.
- 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 21 Progress Shield
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 whi
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 prog
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
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 astr
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 ar
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
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 radi
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 mo
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 inform
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 th
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 b
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
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 scie