The Sky at Night: 1978
Season 22 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 21.
- 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 22 Progress Shield
Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars
Jan 11, 1978
Good astronomical telescopes are very expensive today, but there are many objects in the night sky which can be viewed with binoculars. For example, during winter evenings the cons
The Nearest Galaxies
Feb 8, 1978
What is the most remote object ever visible with the naked eye? The answer is: the Great Spiral in Andromeda, which is a member of our Local Group of galaxies, but is still very re
The New Mars
Mar 8, 1978
The Viking space-probes have been operating on Mars for almost one Martian year (nearly two Earth years). We do not yet know whether life in any form exists there but many scientif
Suns, Space-Ships and Bug-Eyed Monsters
Mar 27, 1978
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 sci
The Asteroids
Apr 4, 1978
The asteroids or minor planets are among the most interesting of the junior members in the Solar System. Only one - Vesta - is ever visible without a telescope, but thousands are n
Birth of a Star
May 17, 1978
How is a star born? We believe that with our telescopes we can see where fresh stars are being created. In this programme Patrick Moore talks about stellar birth, how a star develo
Astronomers' View of the Earth
Jun 8, 1978
Far from being exceptional, our earth is an ordinary planet moving around an ordinary star. From space it looks like a coloured globe as men have seen it from the surface of the mo
Gamma Ray Astronomy
Jun 28, 1978
Gamma ray astronomy is a new science; as yet we do not know as much as we would like about these strange, high penetration rays which come from deep space. Patrick Moore discusses
The Edge of the Solar System
Jun 26, 1978
The outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, are now visible in the evening sky. Do these worlds mark the real edge of the Solar System? There have been suggestions that an undisc
Question and Answer
Aug 23, 1978
What effect does the moon have on the tides? How do I recognise the constellations? What is a shooting star? Is there life on other worlds? If I want to take up astronomy, how shou
Does Anything Ever Happen on the Moon?
Sep 14, 1978
The moon has long been regarded as a dead world; but is this completely true? Astronomers have described faint coloured patches and local ' fogs', which are sometimes thought to be
Where Did Life Begin?
Oct 11, 1978
According to a new and revolutionary idea life did not originate on Earth but was brought here as organisms from outer space. Patrick Moore talks to Sir Fred Hoyle and Professor C
Exploded Star
Nov 15, 1978
Six thousand light-years away in space lies the Crab Nebula, a patch of spreading gas which is all that is left of a star which was seen to explode in 1054. The most famous of all
The Alignment of the Planets
Dec 12, 1978
The two giant planets Jupiter and - Saturn are now visible in the late evening sky. Rocket probes are on their way to both, as the alignment of the outer planets between now and th