The Sky at Night: 1981
Season 25 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 24.
- 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 25 Progress Shield
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.
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 tha
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 know
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
'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 design
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 l
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 aster
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 physic
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
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
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
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 S
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 groupi